Cornucopia bloodbath

A Cornucopia bloodbath always occurs at the very beginning of every Hunger Games, as most of the tributes compete for valuable weapons, food, water and packs full of other valuable supplies spread in and around the Cornucopia.

Tributes always die at the bloodbath, averaging eight to twelve each year--a third to half of the total tributes. Some common weapons in the Cornucopia are knives, spears, and swords. In most of the Games, there were backpacks containing various items. Some examples may be weapons, medical supplies, food, or water. In the 74th Hunger Games, the items closer to the Cornucopia were more valuable items, while the ones farthest away were less valuable. This made the tributes tempted to go into Cornucopia putting the tributes closer togther. The Gamemakers or the Capitol probably set it up this way for optimal entertainment value and quick deaths at the beginning of the game to keep audiences interested. In the end, the Cornucopia is often taken over by a group of tributes who fought in the bloodbath, usually the Career Tributes.

The Cornucopia is usually located in the center of the arena and is where the Career Tributes normally set up camp during the games.

Tactics
There are a variety of ways tributes approach the bloodbath, but these strategies depend on how the Cornucopia has been positioned. For example, in the 74th Hunger Games, the Cornucopia contained everything from weapons, food, and survival provisions. The weapons are almost always arranged from the Cornucopia in terms of usefulness. For example, backpacks containing basic survival provisions were spaced far away while valuable weapons such as bows and swords were placed in the mouth. In contrast, during the 75th Hunger Games, or Third Quarter Quell, the Cornucopia was piled high with weapons in an attempt to ensure a more brutal bloodbath between the tributes. In this instance, any victor tribute who did not want to gain weapons had no use in approaching the Cornucopia.

Some tributes ignore the Cornucopia completely and try to put as much distance as they can between themselves and the armed tributes with weapons from the Cornucopia. This means they will get little or no supplies at all and will have to rely on the arena and their skills or perhaps a rich sponsor to give them some. Peeta Mellark avoided the Cornucopia at first under Haymitch Abernathy's orders, but later joined the Career Tributes and had access to their supplies until he betrayed them. Other tributes, including Katniss Everdeen, grab what they can from the outskirts of the Cornucopia and flee before things get too dangerous. This means they still get supplies, but these are not very valuable and they have little or no weapons. Other tributes, mostly Careers like Marvel, Clove, Glimmer and Cato, dash for supplies as an opportunity to kill as many opponents as possible while they are all together. This means they will get the most weapons and supplies. But they also run the highest risk of getting killed or badly injured. In the 74th Hunger Games, the Careers, possibly after the bloodbath was over, made camp by the Cornucopia. This allowed them to take any leftover supplies. However, the high quantity of supplies taken by the careers allowed other tributes like Foxface to steal some supplies and escape undetected. Rue managed to get some water bottles and socks used to cover her hands at night.

50th Hunger Games
In the 50th Hunger Games, 18 people were killed in the opening bloodbath, most of them likely by the Careers. However, the arena was so beautiful, the tributes were awed at first sight. Haymitch Abernathy, the victor from District Twelve, managed to get supplies before the bloodbath began, being the only one not stunned by the beauty of the arena.

74th Hunger Games
In the 74th Hunger Games, eleven people were killed in the opening bloodbath, most of them killed by the Careers. The only explicit death in the bloodbath is the District 9 Male, who was killed by Clove. In the film, twelve tributes died. Katniss rose up from her tube onto a pedestal as the Cornucopia came into view. With a nervous face, she looked to her left, where Marvel, Clove, the District 4 female, and the District 8 male were standing. She looked to her right where Foxface and the District 7 male were standing. Thresh and the District 6 female appear as well. Katniss then looked towards the Cornucopia, where she located a silver bow with arrows. Back at the gamemaker's station, the countdown for the games began. The capitol citizens are seen watching and cheering as the District 5 male, 10 male, and Foxface come on the screen. District 12 is seen watching the screen which currently showed Rue and Glimmer. Mrs. Everdeen and Prim watch the games with a serious glare on their faces. Gale is shown sitting on the grass and then he turns and looks towards the forest. Katniss, still staring at the bow, looks towards Peeta (who is standing next to the District 10 male and District 7 female on the pedestals beside him) who looks at her and shakes his head, warning her not to go for the bow as she could get killed. Rue and Glimmer are shown. Cato is shown. Then Thresh, the District 7 male, and Foxface are shown. The timer ticks 1 and the gongs ring a second after. All of the tributes run towards the Cornucopia. Peeta and Rue runs the other way. The District 10 male is seen running pass the District 3 tributes, Glimmer, and the District 4 male.

Katniss watches as Peeta runs out of sight and into the woods. Marvel, the District 1 boy, throws the District 8 boy onto the grass and then uses a dagger to stab the tribute repeatedly. Nearby, while the District 5 boy is running with a rolled up, yellow, sleeping bag he stole from the District 6 girl, Cato targets him and hits him in the chest with a baton, slashing the tribute, who collapses onto the ground, dropping the rolled bag, dying while Marvel finishes off the District 8 boy. Katniss looks around the bloody scene, seeing the District 7 girl crawling away from Marvel who tries to jab a spear into the tribute's heart. While Clove looks for a pack of throwing knives, the District 3 girlfalls onto the floor, the District 5 male grabs a sickle, and the District 4 girl confronts Cato with an axe. Cato bends down to pick up a water canteen near where the District 3 female's corpses lies. Katniss watches as the District 4 female quickly runs and grabs a red backpack off the floor. Katniss spots an orange backpack nearby and dashes towards it. As she runs to get the orange backpack, Glimmerstabs the District 6 female with a knife, brutally piercing and cutting her skin while the District 6 boy searches a backpack. As Katniss gets nearer to the backpack, the District 5 boy slashes the District 3 girl's throat as she is sitting up, making her fall onto the ground dead as the District 7 girl ducks down behind a crate and the District 4 girl brawls with Cato. Katniss gets very close to the backpack while Marvel walks away from his first victim. The District 4 boy finds a rolled up, yellow, sleeping bag and hides behind crates inside the Cornucopia. The District 6 boy uses his hands to strangle the District 5 boy. As Katniss grabs her bag, the District 7 boy chases her from the left. The District 4 girl uses her axe to swing and chop at the District 7 girl's legs, causing her to crawl through the whole scene, and as Katniss trips onto the grass, Glimmer is ejecting a knife out of the District 9 girl's back. The District 7 boy walks up to Katniss and raises his axe to kill her. He collapses on the ground with a knife sticking into his back. Katniss turns from him towards Clove, who throws a knife towards her direction. Katniss holds up her bag to defend herself, earning her a knife. When Katniss sees Clove running towards her, she gets up and runs towards the forest. Inside the Cornucopia, the District 6 boy knocks Glimmer onto the floor. Cato kills the District 6 boy by grabbing his head and smashing and slamming it into supply crates. Glimmer then walks past the District 4 male, who is still hiding behind crates, and takes off as Cato has just killed the District 6 boy. As Katniss makes it to the forest, Clove retreats back to the Cornucopia. As Thresh runs out of the Cornucopia with a curved sword and a dark blue sleeping bag, the District 7 boy tries to stab a spear at him, but he easily dodges the attack. The boy from District 7 swings the spear at him again, but Thresh runs up to the tribute and smacks him with his bag and sword, causing him to fall onto the floor. Thresh rushes out of the forest looking out for attacking tributes as Marvel puts rolled up sleeping bags onto his back and the District 3 boyshoves the District 7 girl back onto the ground with his yellow backpack. While Katniss is running in the forest, she collides with Foxface. They stare at each other for a few seconds and then run the opposite ways. Meanwhile at the Cornucopia, the District 4 male looks to see if the coast is clear, and then runs out only to the mouth of the Cornucopia. He turns his head only to confront Cato who immediantly slashes the tribute's throat with his machete. The District 4 male backs away hitting a suitcase, with his blood splashing on it. He collapses onto the ground, dead. Katniss runs through the forest and trips, rolling down a hill only to get up and run again. At the Cornucopia, corpses remaind everywhere. The District 7 boy's body remains with a cut on his throat. The District 9 boy's corpse is seen with blood dripping out of his mouth. The District 4 boy's body is seen laying on the floor clenched to his yellow sleeping bag. The District 5 boy lies on his back with a giant bloody wound on his abdomen. The District 3 girl lies on her stomach with her face facing towards the camera, dead.

The Fallen: District 3 female, District 4 male, District 7 male, District 7 female, District 8 male, District 9 female. Pedestal places: District 5 male, District 4 male, Rue, Glimmer, District 3 male, District 3 female, District 10 male, Peeta, District 7 female, District 6 male, Cato, District 7 male, Foxface, Katniss, Marvel, Clove, District 4 female, District 8 male, District 6 female, Thresh. Note: All the fallen tributes were killed in the bloodbath.

Clove killed the District 9 boy in the book and the District 7 boy in the film. Cato killed the District 5 and 6 males as well as the District 4 tributes, who are not considered careers in the film. Glimmer killed the District 6 and 9 females. Marvel killed the District 8 male and 7 female. Thresh killed the District 7 boy in the film. The District 5 male killed the District 3 girl and was the only unnamed tribute to kill another tribute.

75th Hunger Games
In the 75th Hunger Games, eight people were killed in the opening bloodbath. Katniss Everdeen reached the Cornucopia and gathered with Finnick. Finnick tells Katniss to duck and uses a trident to spear the attacking District 5 male in the chest, described by Katniss as the man who threw up on the sword fighting floor. Katniss shoots an arrow at Enobaria, but she dives back into the water. She manages to sink an arrow into Gloss's calf while he's retreating. Brutus runs up to them and blocks Katniss's arrow with his belt. The two of them find Mags and Peeta and run away. Later on Finnick, Mags, Katniss, and Peeta get a distance away. Katniss climbs up in a tree and describes what she sees: the ground bleeding, the water turning purple, and dead bodies lieing on the ground and floating in the sea. The District 10 female, Seeder, Cecelia, Woof, the male Morphling and both tributes from District 9 were also killed. Unlike the 74th Hunger Games, the only thing held in the Cornucopia was weapons. The weapons were piled up instead of being placed around the Cornucopia.