50th Hunger Games

The 50th Hunger Games was the year of the second Quarter Quell. In honor of this anniversary, twice the number of regular tributes were sent into the arena, giving a total of 48 tributes. The Games were won by District 12's Haymitch Abernathy, who went on to mentor Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark in the 74th and 75th Hunger Games.

Arena
The arena was "the most breathtaking place imaginable". The Cornucopia sat in the middle of a sweet-smelling green meadow, and the sky was azure blue, with fluffy, billowing white clouds. The meadow stretches for miles, and far in the distance there are woods on one side, and a snowcapped mountain on the other, which later turns out to be a volcano that kills most of the Career pack. Everything in the arena is lethally poisonous, including the food growing in the arena, the water in the stream, the butterfly stings, and even the scent of the flowers when inhaled too directly. The only sources of food and water in the arena that aren't poisoned are the rainwater and the food from the Cornucopia. At the very edge of the arena there is a cliff, beyond which is a force field that victor Haymitch Abernathy uses to help kill his final opponent.

The Games
The Games started off with a bloodbath at the Cornucopia, as usual, which killed 18 of the 24 tributes in the Games. Gamemaker traps for these Games included poisonous food, water, plants, animals and a volcano disguised as a mountain, which killed most of the Career Tributes pack. At one point, Haymitch is surrounded by three career tributes, and while he takes out two of them, the third is about to slit his throat when the enemy tribute is shot with a poisonous dart by Haymitch's fellow District 12 tribute, Maysilee Donner. Maysilee had taken a dart blowgun from the Cornucopia and put the darts into the poisonous substances in the arena, thus ensuring the darts would kill.

Haymitch and Maysilee formed an alliance. Haymitch insists on walking on until he finds the edge of the arena and refuses to tell Maysilee why. They do eventually get there. When the pool of tributes is very low, Maysilee breaks up the alliance. At that point, there remained five tributes left in the arena: Maysilee Donner (District 12), Haymitch Abernathy (District 12), the female tribute from District 1, and two unknown tributes.

When they reach the edge of the arena, Haymitch accidentally kicks a pebble into the force field. He was surprised to see it came back. Curious, he throws a larger rock into the force field, which also returns. He laughs at this, having found a way to win the Games.

Shortly after Maysilee breaks up the alliance, she is attacked by candy-floss pink birds with skewer-like beaks; no doubt muttations. Upon hearing her cries, Haymitch runs to her. By the time he gets there, Maysilee had been skewered through the throat. Haymitch holds her hand as she dies, and when Katniss sees this, she is reminded of Rue and how she was 'too late to save as well'.

As the games progressed, one of the last tributes was killed by fluffy golden squirrels, and the other unknown tribute was killed in combat. Later, Haymitch gets wounded by the final tribute, the female from District 1. She nearly kills him, giving him a severe wound that causes him to hold his intestines in and drag himself away from her. She had previously lost an eye, necessitating that she hold one hand on her empty eye socket to try to stop the flowing blood, and an axe in the other, intending to deliver his deathblow. Haymitch defeated her when she threw the axe at him and he ducked, causing it to rebound off the force field at the edge of the arena and fly back at her, lodging itself in her head and killing her.

Within a matter of minutes, Haymitch remained as the only living tribute left, elevating him to the status of Hunger Games Victor. The gamemakers did not anticipate that a tribute would think to use the force field as a weapon, and Haymitch clearly outsmarted them. It is later discovered, in Mockingjay, that two weeks after the games, Haymitch's mother, younger brother, and his girlfriend were all murdered by the Capitol because of the stunt he pulled with the force field.

The murders are most likely a reason why Haymitch started drinking, along with haunting memories of his Games, as well as futily watching the tributes he mentors alone, every year since, die.

Known tributes

 * Haymitch Abernathy - District 12 (victor)
 * Maysilee Donner - District 12
 * District 1 Female - District 1

Muttations

 * Unknown species of fluffy golden carnivorous squirrels
 * Unknown species of poisonous stinging butterflies
 * Unknown species of candy-pink birds with skewer shaped beaks