They had NOTHING in their skill-set that could be described as anything close to survival skills. The so-called "Careers", who have supposedly trained all their lives for this competition, can't even hunt other competitors in a stealthy fashion. They hoop and holler and announce their presence. And Katnap is simply retarded when it comes to survival and hunting......yet she is supposed to be this great white hunter LOL
AWFUL writing.
They didn't. The competitors are chosen randomly, not based on their survival skills.
They had a few days to train before going to the arena. As for the Careers, they trained to use weapons. Their strategy was to capture the center and all the supplies.