Continuing in tradition with 2003’s tournament circuit, Battle Road resumed with Battle Road Spring 2004. Starting March 21, 2004, a series of regional tournaments would be held at 7 venues around Japan. Similar to the previous year, there were 3 leagues: juniors (elementary school), seniors (high school grade 2 or up to age 18), and masters (18+).
There were 3 Battle Roads held during 2004: Battle Road Spring, Summer, and Autumn. These tournaments would award winners the same Victory Orb and Victory Ring Promos from 2003’s events.
Path to Worlds
The summer circuit (Battle Road Summer 2004) would also be how Japanese players qualified for the 2004 World Championships. This would be the first Worlds event held after Wizards of the Coast lost the Pokemon TCG license.
Juniors and seniors league winners from each regional summer tournament would earn an invite to Worlds, as well as the previous year’s Junior, Senior, and Masters national champions. This was likely to make up for the fact that 2003 did not have a world championships event due to the license transferring from Wizards to the Pokemon Company.
Masters league winners from 2004’s regional summer events were not eligible to go to Worlds.
Tournament Structure
Similar to previous years, the regional tournaments were split up into a Qualifying Tournament and a Final Tournament. The Qualifying Tournament would serve to cut the large amount of attendees down to a final top cut. The tournament structure was the same for Battle Road Spring and Summer, with Battle Road Autumn changing the rules slightly.
Allowed cards
The tournaments used the the standard banlist of Non-Japanese cards and cards that weren’t allowed in official tournaments. The “Hall of Fame” ban lists used during the 2001-2002 tournaments were no longer relevant, as official tournaments no longer allowed cards with old card backs.
Juniors league players were limited to only using cards from the Pokemon Card ADV expansions (EX Ruby Sapphire or onwards), along with any additional ADV products like preconstructed decks and promos.
Seniors & Masters league players had a slightly expanded card pool. They were able to use any cards that juniors could use, as well as cards from the e-Series, Web, VS expansions. Additional products like preconstructed decks and promos from those series were also allowed, effectively giving the seniors & masters divisions more than double the card pool.
Qualifying Tournament Rules
Players were split into 2 groups: Juniors league players, and Seniors + Masters league players. The format of this tournament was known as “Winning Battle”.
In this tournament format, players queued up to match up with another player in their age group and played an accelerated game. 3 consecutive wins would award 1 point. At the end of the Qualifying Tournament’s time, the top 8 players from each league with the most points would advance to the Final Tournament.
Due to the nature of this tournament, players were incentivized to play as quickly as possible to maximize the number of chances they had at getting points. Games were short due to the deck construction & match rules:
- New card back cards only
- 30-card decks
- 3 Prizes
- Up to 2 cards with the same name in each deck (excluding basic energies)
- The first player cannot play Supporters on their first turn
The smaller Battle Road Autumn tournament circuit changed the Qualifying Tournament’s rules. Instead of there being a series of rapid-fire point-earning matches, players simply played 7 games, and the top 16 players from each league advanced to the Final Tournament. Given this structure, it’s likely that players would have to win at least 6 times to place in the top 16. Tie breaks were determined by number of prize cards taken.
Finals Tournament
The top 8 players (or 16 in the case of Battle Road Autumn) from each of the 3 leagues (Juniors, Seniors, and Masters) advanced to the Final Tournament at each venue. This tournament was a single-elimination tournament, and players played full games with the following rules:
- New card back cards only
- 60-card decks
- 6 prizes
- Up to 4 cards with the same name in each deck (excluding basic energies)
- The first player cannot play Supporters on their first turn
Battle Road Spring 2004
The spring tournaments were held in major cities across Japan. Due to the large number of participants at each venue, tournament registration closed earlier than planned for multiple venues, so organizers advised trainers to arrive earlier to get a spot. The tournaments were held at:
- Kyushu Tournament: Fukuoka Fashion Building on March 21, 2004
- Kansai Tournament: Umeda Center Building Crystal Hall on March 21, 2004
- Hokkaido tournament: Sapporo Factory on March 27, 2004
- Kanto tournament: Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center on March 27-28, 2004
- Chubu tournament: Nagoya City Small & Medium Enterprise Promotion center on March 31, 2004
- Chūgoku Tournament: Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Exhibition Hall on March 31, 2004
- Tohoku tournament: Aztec Museum on April 4, 2004
Participants received a promotional Charizard card, and Pokemon Players Club members also received a Master Ball promo. The Master Ball card was short in supply at some venues, so if it was out of stock, club members would be mailed one at a later date.
The top 4 players in each league from Battle Road Spring were also guaranteed a spot in the Battle Road Summer 2004 tournament later in the year. The top 3 winners in each league were awarded a Victory Ring promo.
Unlike in 2003, Victory Rings were only given out to the top 3 finishers instead of the top 8, and were presented in an acrylic plaque instead of a portfolio folder. This makes the 2004 variant much more rare, but the card itself is identical across both years.
Battle Road Summer 2004
Battle Road Summer 2004 events took place during the Pokemon Festa 2004, a summer celebration event that spanned 12 venues nationwide across 17 days. Pokemon Festa also included the national championship event for the video games.
Winners of this event would be invited to represent Japan at the 2004 World Championships in Florida, USA. As with previous events, admission was free, but limited based on capacity. Several venues hosted tournaments but weren’t part of the regional tournament circuit.
In total there were 8 official regional tournaments. The venue locations and dates were as follows:
- Hokkaido Tournament: Sapporo Community Dome “Tsudome” on August 8, 2004
- Tohoku Tournament: Yume Messe Miyagi on August 4, 2004
- Kanto A+B Tournaments: Tokyo Fashion Town Hall on July 31 – August 1, 2004
- (Non-official) Saitama Tournament: Saitama Super Arena on August 12, 2004
- (Non-official) Chiba Tournament: Makuhari Messe on August 14-15, 2004
- (Non-official) Yokohama Tournament: Pacifico Yokohama on August 14-15, 2004
- Chubu Tournament: Port Messe Nagoya on July 18, 2004
- Kansai Tournament: INTEX Osaka on August 1, 2004
- (Non-official) Okayama Tournament: Convex Okayama on July 25, 2004
- Chugoku Tournament: Green Arena on July 24, 2004
- (Non-official) Kagawa Tournament: Sunmesse Kagawa on July 18, 2004
- Kyushu Tournament: Marine Messe Fukuoka on August 8, 2004
Participants at the summer events received a promotional Scramble Energy card, along with a Deoxys card for attending the Pokemon Festa 2014. Since the Kanto regional tournaments were held in a different place than the Pokemon Festa, participants at the Kanto tournaments also received the Dexoys card at their event.
Similar to the previous year, the top 3 winners of each regional tournament received a Victory Orb promo card.
Regional winners of the Battle Road Summer 2004 tournaments were also invited to the Champion’s League 2004 tournament to compete with previous regional tournament winners and last year’s grand champions.
Battle Road Autumn 2004
Battle Road Autumn was far smaller than the spring and summer tournaments. It was only held at 3 venues in Japan from 10:00 to 17:00 each day. This tournament occurred just after the EX Team Rocket Returns set released in Japan, so players were able to use the new cards in their decks. This resulted in many new decks and strategies occuring.
- Kansai Tournament: Umeda Center Building Crystal Hall on October 24, 2004
- Kanto Tournament: Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center on November 7, 2004
- Chubu Tournament: Nagoya Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion Center on November 21
Battle Road Autumn’s tournament structure was slightly different from spring’s and summer’s. During the Qualifying Tournament, instead of there being a series of rapid-fire point-earning matches, players simply played 7 games, and the top 16 players from each league advanced to the Final Tournament. Spring and summer tournaments only had the top 8 players from each league advance.
Given this structure, it’s likely that players would have to win at least 6 times to place in the top 16. Tie breaks were determined by number of prize cards taken.
Participants received a stamped Rocket’s Raikou ex. This promo is very similar to a promo Rocket’s Raikou EX distributed in the Black / Silver Team Rocket Special Box, but it is non-holo and has a gold stamp denoting the Battle Road event.
Battle Road Autumn 2004 version
Black / Silver Team Rocket Special Box version
Those who advanced to the Final Tournament received a Team Rocket Badge, pencil case, and deck box. The top 3 winners of the Battle Road Autumn 2004 events received a special T-shirt and a Victory Ring promo.
Side events (Corners)
Battle Road events continued to feature side events (known as “corners”) in addition to the main official tournament. Some of these side events also distributed their own exclusive promo cards.
Point Get Battle
This side event was only available starting with the Battle Road Summer events. Entry into this side event was decided by a lottery on the event date.
Participants competed for points within a set time limit. Players could choose to play in 30-card half deck, 60-card full deck, or 60-card full deck 2v2 leagues. Points were accumulated by winning games, which could be traded in for prizes. For the Battle Road Summer 2004 events, these were 2 promo cards.
Other prizes were also available, such as bandanas and card boxes.
Challenge PCL & Gym Leaders
This side event was only available starting with the Battle Road Summer events. Entry into this side event was decided by a lottery on the event date.
Pokemon Card Laboratory (PCL) “researchers” and staff members portraying Gym Leaders were available at this corner to challenge trainers to battle with 30-card decks. PCL is the Pokemon TCG’s development team for the game, so the decks they used were all finely tuned. Defeating a PCL researcher would win you a special promo card and a gym leader badge.
Double Battle League
This was a 60-card 2v2 tag team tournament. Participants received the same Luvdisc promo card that was given out for the Point Get Battle event. Winners were also eligible to win a bandana.
Player’s Gym Tournament
This was a tournament that had players form a team of 3 players to represent their district. Players would prepare 30-card decks to use.
Winning teams would get a set of 3 Articuno ex, Zapdos ex, and Moltres ex cards from the Flight of Legends expansion (EX FireRed LeafGreen in the US), along with 3 special playmats. These cards were not promo cards, and were identical to the versions in booster packs.
First Time League
This corner was for players who knew the game’s rules, but weren’t yet ready for the official tournament. Players could use any of the premade decks at this venue to play in the league.
Participants would get a Pikachu Badge, playmat, and a copy of Oak’s Research from the Flight of Legends expansion. Similar to the legendary bird trio given away at the Player’s Gym Tournament corner, this card was not a promo card and was identical to the version available in set boosters.
Participants who participated in this side event at Battle Road Summer were encouraged to try out the official tournament Battle Road Autumn later in the year.
Rocket one-day Battle
This side event was only available at Battle Road Autumn 2004 events. It was a tournament similar to the Point Get Battles, but players had to play with a 30-card deck that randomly had 4 cards from the EX Team Rocket Returns expansion inserted.
Participants all received a Team Rocket badge, while the top 5 players received a Team Rocket T-shirt.
Challenge the Champion
This side event was only available at Battle Road Autumn 2004 events. Players could challenge the Masters League players who won Battle Road Summer 2004 earlier in the year here in either 30-card or 60-card formats.
Defeating the champion would win the player a set of Blue Squirtle deck sleeves.
At the Nagoya venue, Battle Road Summer 2004 Masters league winner Shigeru Kanda and World Championship 2004 winner Tsukasa Yamato were present to play challengers. Kanda had apparently gone undefeated at the Tokyo venue earlier.
PCL Deck Diagnostic
This side event was only available at Battle Road Autumn 2004 events. Beginning players could bring their 30-card decks to this corner and have PCL researchers examine the deck and offer suggestions to make it better.
Teaching Corner
As with almost all previous official tournaments, this corner was where people of all ages (including parents) could learn how to play the Pokemon TCG from staff members. Joining the Pokemon Player’s Club and learning how to play at this corner would also reward you with 50 EXP points.
Participants would also get the “Pokemon Card Game Official Guide 2004” and a playmat. The guide contained things like promotional material, how to play guides, and a visual card checklist of the current sets.
Pokemon Players Club Corner
This corner was a place where players could register to join the Pokemon Players Club, now in its second season. New and current members could receive 50 EXP points for visiting this corner. New members would also receive a copy of the “Pokemon Card Game Official Guide 2004”.
2003-2004 Victory Ring & Orb Population
Given the known information on tournaments during Battle Road 2003 & 2004, it’s possible to estimate out the total amount of these cards that were distributed to winners.
The 2003-2004 Victory Ring had 291 copies officially distributed during 4 events:
Battle Road Spring 2003: 192 copies
- Given to top 8 winners of each regional tournament
- 8 regional tournaments held
- 3 age divisions (junior, senior, master)
Battle Road Autumn 2003: 18 copies
- Given to top 3 winners of each regional tournament
- 3 regional tournaments held
- 2 age divisions (junior, senior + master)
Battle Road Spring 2004: 63 copies
- Given to top 3 winners of each regional tournament
- 7 regional tournaments held
- 3 age divisions (junior, senior, master)
Battle Road Autumn 2004: 18 copies
- Given to top 3 winners of each regional tournament
- 3 regional tournaments held
- 2 age divisions (junior, senior + master)
The 2003-2004 Victory Orb had 153 copies officially distributed during 2 events:
Battle Road Summer 2003: 81 copies
- Given to top 3 winners of each regional tournament
- 9 regional tournaments held
- 3 age divisions (junior, senior, master)
Battle Road Summer 2004: 72 copies
- Given to top 3 winners of each regional tournament
- 8 regional tournaments held
- 3 age divisions (junior, senior, master)
Sources
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