Battle Road 2005

Article tags: 2005, Japan, Tournament

Continuing from 2004’s tournaments, Battle Road 2005 resumed another 3 seasonal tournaments in spring, summer, and autumn. Battle Road Spring 2005 kicked off 2005’s tournament circuit starting from March 13, 2005, and Battle Road Autumn would conclude the regional tournaments on November 3, 2005.

One of the more notable changes for the 2005 tournaments was updating the artwork of the Victory Ring and Victory Orb prize cards given to winners. 2005’s design incorporated Pokemon such as Pikachu and Mew into their art, and the updated promos would be used again in Battle Road 2006.

Victory Ring (Battle Road 2005,2006) (Unnumbered)

Victory Orb (Battle Road 2005,2006) (Unnumbered)

Path to Worlds

Unlike the previous year, where winners of the summer tournaments would be invited to the World Championships, in 2005 only winners of Battle Road Spring 2005 would earn an invite to the World Championships held in the United States.

The 1st place winners of each regional tournament in both the junior and senior divisions would earn invites to the international event. Since there were 9 Battle Road Spring tournaments in 2005, Japan would send 18 representatives to the World Championships.

Winners of the Battle Road Summer 2005 tournaments would instead be invited to the Champion’s League 2005 event to determine a Japanese national champion.

Tournament Structure

Similar to 2004, players were divided into 3 age groups, known as “leagues”.

Junior League: Born after April 2, 1993
Senior League: Born April 2,1987 – April 1, 1993
Master League: Born before April 1, 1987

Like 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 2005 summer and spring tournaments used the traditional Qualifying / Final Tournament structures, while the autumn event used a different structure (described in the Battle Road Autumn 2005 section below).

Allowed Cards

Battle Road 2005 phased out older new-back cards from the e-Series, Web, and VS expansions. Only cards from the ADV expansions (EX Sapphire and onwards), associated preconstructed decks, and newer promo cards would be allowed. All age groups were restricted by these new rules, which differed from 2004’s events. During 2004, juniors were only able to use ADV-era cards, but seniors and masters could use the older new-back cards.

Battle Road 2005 effectively “retired” the older yellow-bordered cards from tournament play, making it quite straightforward for players to understand which cards were legal to play. The only yellow-bordered cards still allowed were new-back basic energies from the e-Series, Web, and VS expansions.

Per usual, cards marked “This card cannot be used in official competitions” and non-Japanese cards were not allowed.

Qualifying Tournament Rules

During the Qualifying Tournament, players in each age group were split into small groups. Within that group, players played round-robin games, with points award for wins and draws. At the end of the qualifying tournament, the 1st place player in each group would advance to the Final Tournament.

Allowed 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

Final Tournament Rules

Players who advanced to the Final Tournament played against each other in a single-elimination tournament. In 2005, all players who advanced to the Final Tournament were also given a special promo card. This promo card differed between each season’s tournament.

Allowed 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

The top 3 winners of the Final Tournament would be crowned the regional tournament’s winners, and would receive the Victory Ring / Victory Orb promo cards. For Battle Road Spring 2005, 1st and 2nd place also received invites to Battle Road Summer 2005’s Final Tournament in their regions.

Battle Road Spring 2005

Battle Road Spring 2005 logo

Battle Road Spring had 9 tournaments held in 7 major cities across Japan. Due to anticipated demand, only players who had registered via the official Pokemon TCG website by February 14, 2005.

The Kyūshū tournament was supposed to take place on March 20, 2015 but was postponed due to the 2005 Fukuoka earthquake. This made it go from being one of the first tournaments in the circuit to the last.

Chūgoku/Shikoku tournament: Hiroshima Industrial Hall, Hiroshima on March 13, 2005.
Hokkaidō tournament: Sapporo Convention Center, Sapporo on March 20, 2005.
Kansai A tournament: Umeda Center Building, Osaka on March 26, 2005.
Kansai B tournament: Umeda Center Building, Osaka on March 27, 2005.
Tōhoku tournament: Aztec Museum, Sendai on March 27, 2005.
Kantō A tournament: Hamamatsuchō House, Tokyo on April 2, 2005.
Kantō B tournament: Hamamatsuchō House, Tokyo on April 3, 2005.
Chūbu tournament: Port Messe Nagoya, Nagoya on April 3, 2005.
Kyūshū tournament: Fukuoka Fashion Building, Fukuoka on May 8, 2005.

Participants were given a Celebi ex non-holo promo card, and players who qualified for the Final Tournament were given a cosmos holofoil Dark Metal Energy promo. The Dark Metal Energy promo was also available at the Point Get Battle side event at Battle Road Spring venues.

Celebi EX (052/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Dark Metal Energy (054/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

The top 3 winners in each league of each regional tournament received a Victory Ring promo with new artwork. This was presented in an acrylic plaque with a design specific to Battle Road Spring. Future tournaments would continue this tradition and have special plaque designs for each tournament.

*1st place Juniors league Battle Road Spring 2005 plaque from the Chūgoku/Shikoku tournament courtesy of mega_shining_magikarp*

Victory Ring (Battle Road 2005,2006) (Unnumbered)

The 1st place winners of the juniors and seniors leagues were also invited to the 2005 World Championships held in San Diego, California in the US. Masters league players were not invited to the international competition.

The spring tournaments did not culminate in a “Best in Japan” national championships. That would take place in the summer with Battle Summer 2005.

Battle Road Summer 2005

Battle Road Summer 2005’s tournaments kicked off on July 10, 2015. Some of the summer tournaments also overlapped with Pokemon Festa 2005’s events, which started a week later on July 17, 2015.

The Pokemon Festa events were nationwide annual summer celebrations of the Pokemon franchise. They featured the national championships for both the TCG and video games, as well as numerous other events at the venue.

Participants for Battle Road Summer 2005 were selected via lottery among the players who had pre-registered via the official website by June 6, 2005.

Regional tournaments marked with a * below occurred at a Pokemon Festa 2005 venue.

Hokkaidō tournament: Itokin Building, Sapporo on July 10, 2005.
Tōhoku tournament: Aztec Museum, Sendai on July 10, 2005.
*Kantō A tournament: Tokyo International Exhibition Center, Tokyo on July 17, 2005.
Kansai A tournament: Umeda Center Building, Osaka on July 17, 2005.
*Kantō B tournament: Tokyo International Exhibition Center, Tokyo on July 18, 2005.
Kansai B tournament: Umeda Center Building, Osaka on July 18, 2005.
*Chūbu tournament: Port Messe Nagoya, Nagoya on July 23, 2005.
*Chūgoku tournament: Convex Okayama, Okayama on August 14, 2005.
*Kyūshū tournament: Marine Messe Fukuoka, Fukuoka on August 14, 2005.

Participants for the summer tournaments received a cosmos holofoil promo Rayquaza card. Similar to the spring tournaments, those who made it to the Final Tournament received another promo card. For summer, this was a React Energy holofoil promo.

Rayquaza (094/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

React Energy (095/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Breaking from the pattern, the top 4 winners in each league of each regional tournament received a Victory Orb promo with new artwork. According to a tournament report from the official website, there were two 3rd place winners for each of the regional Battle Road Summer 2005 Summer tournaments. Oddly enough, the previous Battle Road Spring 2005 and following year’s Battle Road 2006 only had 3 winners each, which makes this a more unique occurrence.

The Victory Orb was presented in an acrylic plaque with a design specific to Battle Road Summer, similar to the plaque given to the spring tournament winners.

*3rd place Juniors league Battle Road Summer 2005 plaque from the Chūgoku/Shikoku tournament courtesy of mega_shining_magikarp*

Victory Orb (Battle Road 2005,2006) (Unnumbered)

The 1st place winner of each regional summer tournament would earn entry into the Champion’s League tournament held later in September 2005 to decide the national champion.

Battle Road Autumn 2005

Battle Road Autumn 2005 was the final leg of Battle Road 2005. Similar to previous autumn tournaments, it was a much smaller circuit and was held in only 3 cities across Japan: Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka.

Kansai tournament: ATC Hall, Osaka on October 23, 2005
Kanto tournament: TFT Hall, Tokyo on October 30, 2005
Chubu tournament: Aichi Prefectural Industrial Trade Center, Nagoya on November 3.

Players were split into 2 leagues: Junior league and Senior & Master League. They had to register by noon, and entry was limited due to high attendance. Participants each received a Pikachu promo card. This card was an alternate art of the Pikachu delta species that was distributed in Meiji chocolate boxes.

Meiji Chocolate promo

Pikachu δ Delta Species (112/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Battle Road Autumn 2005 participation promo

Pikachu δ Delta Species (113/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

“Stadium” Tournament Structure

Battle Road Autumn introduced a brand new tournament structure with 6 “stages”, called “Battle Road Stadium”. This “stadium” tournament structure was successful enough to be used again in subsequent events.

All players started at the 1st stage, and would advance by winning. If a player lost, they would have to “leave” the stadium and were allowed to queue up again starting from the 1st stage.

Since players could attempt as many times as they could within the tournament’s hours, players were incentivized to play quickly to maximize chances of winning prizes. The tournament ran from 9:00 to 17:00.

1st Stage: 30-card decks with 3 prizes, 10 minute time limit.
2nd – 5th Stage: 30-card decks with 3 prizes, no time limit.
6th “Premium” Stage: 60-card decks with 4 prizes, 15 minutes time limit.

Players played against other players for the 1st through 5th stages, but during the 6th “Premium” stage, they played against a Pokemon Card Laboratory (PCL) “researcher”. PCL is the Pokemon TCG’s development team for the game, so their decks were likely finely-tuned and piloted by skilled employees.

Winning at the 3rd stage would award players with another copy of the Pikachu delta species promo that they got as a participation prize. However, this card was also stamped with a gold foil event logo.

Participation promo

Pikachu δ Delta Species (113/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

3rd stage win promo

Stamped Pikachu δ Delta Species (113/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Winning at the 4th stage would award were awarded with a set of 3 Holon Energy promo cards. The holofoil versions were exclusive to this event.

Holon Energy GL (114/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Holon Energy FF (115/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Holon Energy WP (116/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Players who managed to defeat the PCL researcher at the 6th stage were rewarded with a promotional Championship Arena card (known as Battle Road Stadium in Japanese). This card depicted the actual “stadium” that the tournament took place in, so the event venue was likely decorated similar to the card’s artwork.

Championship Arena (117/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Unlike 2004’s Battle Road Autumn, due to the “stadium” tournament structure there were no formal 1st – 3rd place winners, which meant the Victory Ring promo was not distributed at Battle Road Autumn 2005. Instead, the Championship Arena promo was the “trophy” of the event.

Side Events (Corners)

Battle Road 2005 continued to feature side events (commonly known as “corners” in Japan) in addition to the main official tournament. Many of these events also featured exclusive promo cards.

Team Rocket One Day Battle (Double Battle)

Available at: Battle Road Spring 2005

This corner was a tag team double battle event. Two players, each with a 60-card deck would match up against other teams. At least 7 cards in each deck had to contain cards from the Team Rocket Counterattack (EX Team Rocket Returns in English) expansion. The matches were played with 4 prize cards and a 15 minute time limit.

Participants each received a holofoil Rocket’s Persian ex promo card. This was a holofoil version of the Rocket’s Persian ex that was distributed earlier to participants of the PCL Challenge Corner events held at the 21st Next Generation World Hobby Fair, which took place during January and February 2005

World Hobby Fair version

Rocket’s Persian EX (036/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Battle Road version

Rocket’s Persian EX (053/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Teams that won 3 consecutive times won a set of holofoil energy cards. These were originally printed as non-holo cards in the Quick Construction Packs on January 16, 2005. The holofoil versions were exclusive to winners of this side event and the Plusle Minun Tag Battle in Battle Road Spring 2006, so they are quite rare.

Grass Energy (055/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Fire Energy (056/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Water Energy (057/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Lightning Energy (058/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Psychic Energy (059/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Fighting Energy (060/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

These were given to players in a sealed cellophane wrapper, similar to many other Battle Road promos from this time.

*Sealed promotional energies from this side event*

Point Get Battle

Dark Metal Energy (054/PCG-P Japanese Promo)

Available at: Battle Road Spring 2005

Participants competed for points within a set time limit. Players used 30-card decks and played quick matches to earn points. Points were accumulated by winning games, which could be traded in for prizes.

During Battle Road Spring, one of these prizes was the Dark Metal Energy card given to players who made it to the Final Tournament. This corner was a way for other players to earn the promo.

Ticket Get Battle

Available at: Battle Road Summer 2005

At this side event, participants were divided into 2 groups: elementary school students and younger, and all other older players. Players could choose to play in either 30-card or 60-card deck battles.

Each player was issued a ticket. Beating another player would take their ticket. Players could redeem 2 tickets to earn an entry into a lottery. Prizes included:

PokéPark Premium Files (previously sold at the PokéPark venues in March 2005). This was considered the “special prize”
Mirage Forest booster pack (EX Legend Maker English equivalent)
Special bandana

*Image from the event website describing this corner and prizes*

Holon Research Tower One Day Battle

Available at: Battle Road Autumn 2005

Similar to the Team Rocket One Day Battle at Battle Road Spring events earlier in the year, this corner was where players would play matches with the newest expansion, Holon Research Tower (EX Delta Species in the USA). Players played matches with 30-card half decks that contained at least 4 cards from the new set.

Unlike the Team Rocket version of this side event, there was no exclusive promo for participating. There were prizes for winners, but they were not the holofoil energy cards given away in the spring Team Rocket One Day Battle. They were likely rewards like booster packs or event memorabilia like bandanas.

Teaching Corner

Available at: Battle Road Spring 2005, Battle Road Summer 2005, Battle Road Autumn 2005

As usual at official tournaments, this side event was meant to teach parents or elementary school children how to play the Pokemon TCG.

In 2005’s events, participants walked away with a foldable paper playmat and exclusive Pikachu pin. The back of the playmat also featured a poster with images of all the Pokemon up to Gen 3.

Pokemon Players Club Corner

Available at: Battle Road Spring 2005, Battle Road Summer 2005, Battle Road Autumn 2005

This corner was where members of the Pokemon Players Club could claim their EXP for attending an official tournament.

Players could also purchase the “Official Players Kit” here, which was normally only available by mail order for Players club members. The kit cost 1,500 yen at the venue until supplies ran out.

2005-2006 Victory Ring & Orb Population

Given the known information on tournaments during Battle Road 2005 & 2006, it’s possible to estimate out the total amount of these cards that were distributed to winners.

The 2005-2006 Victory Ring had 162 copies officially distributed during 2 events: