The Battle Road tournaments resumed in 2007, starting with Battle Road Spring 2007 on March 17, 2007. This tournament series featured both a spring and summer tournament similar to the previous year. There wasn’t an autumn Battle Road this year, but there was a Winter Challenge Event later in 2007.
The 2007 tournaments replaced the Victory Ring and Victory Orb promos of Battle Road 2006 with two new trophy cards: Mysterious Pearl and Miracle Diamond. These cards were an homage to the recently released Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl games.
Path to Worlds
The 2007 World Championships were held on August 10-12, 2007 in Hawaii, USA. The 1st place winner of each age division for Battle Road Spring 2007, as well as the 1st place in each age division for the Champions League Spring 2007 would be invited to attend.
Tournament Structure
Players were split into 3 age divisions depending on their age:
- Junior League: Born after April 2, 1995
- Senior League: Born April 2, 1989-April 1, 1995
- Master League: Born before April 1, 1989
Similar to previous years, there was a “Qualifying League” that led into a “Final Tournament / Selection”.
Spring tournament structure
For juniors, the Qualifying League was played with 30-card half decks, 3 prizes, and a 10 minute time limit. For senior and master leagues, the Qualifying League used 60-card decks, 4 prizes, and a 20 minute time limit. The tournament structure for the qualifiers was the usual round-robin tournament, where players were divided into smaller groups and the person with the best match record in that group would advance. From multiple player accounts, it seems like the Qualifying League was 4 rounds long, with points awarded for wins and tie-breakers coming down to prize cards opponents had taken.
The Final Tournament for all age divisions were played with 60-card decks, 6 prizes, and a 20 minute time limit (30 minutes for the finals). This tournament was also similar to previous years as a single elimination tournament to decide the final standings. From player blogs, the Final Tournament appeared to have been 5 rounds long, with 2 preliminary rounds before the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals.
Summer tournament structure
The summer tournament had a qualifying league and a final tournament just like the Spring tournament, however the structure of the qualifier was different.
Previously in the spring tournament, players would be divided into smaller groups and move onto the finals based on their match records. In Battle Road Summer 2007, the qualifying league was changed to a “Stage” system.
Players in the qualifier would start at the “1st Stage”. Winning a match would advance them to the next stage. Winning the “5th stage” would earn a player a spot in the Final Tournament. The qualifying league would end when the number of players in the Final Tournament had filled to capacity. Each venue had a different Final Tournament capacity:
- Kyūshū tournament: 32 players in each age division
- Tōhoku region tournament: 32 players in each age division
- Hokkaidō tournament: 32 players in each age division
- Kantō A tournament: 64 players in each age division
- Chūbu tournament: 64 players in each age division
- Kantō B tournament: 64 players in each age division
- Chūgoku tournament: 32 players in each age division
- Kansai tournament: 64 players in each age division
Allowed Cards
The 2007 tournaments only allowed cards from the EX FireRed LeafGreen (Flight of Legends in Japan) sets and onwards, as well as any pre-constructed decks and special release products. Promotional cards from the ADV-P promo sets and onwards were also allowed.
- EX FireRed & LeafGreen (Flight of Legends)
- EX Team Rocket Returns (Rocket Gang Strikes Back)
- EX Deoxys (Clash of the Blue Sky)
- EX Emerald (No JP set equivalent)
- EX Unseen Forces (Golden Sky, Silvery Ocean)
- EX Delta Species (Holon Research Tower)
- EX Legend Maker (Mirage Forest)
- EX Holon Phantoms (Holon’s Phantom)
- EX Crystal Guardians (Miracle Crystal)
- EX Dragon Frontiers (Offense & Desnse of the Furtherst Ends)
- EX Power Keepers (World Champions Pack)
- Diamond & Pearl (DP1 – Diamond Collection / Pearl Collection)
- Summer only: Mysterious Treasures (Secret of the Lakes)
- Summer only: Secret Wonders (Shining Darkness)
- Random Construction Starters
- Preconstructed 30-card Starter Decks
- Preconstructed 60-card Starter Decks
- Quick Construction Pack
- Gift Box sets
- Master kits
- Pokepark Premium files
- Movie release Commemoration VS packs
- ADV-P promo cards
- PCG-P promo cards
- DP-P promo cards
- Players Club promo cards
- Summer only: Movie 10th Anniversary Premium Sheet
Additionally, players were allowed to use older cards cards for some staple trainers and energy cards if they had been reprinted in newer sets. These were cards like Metal / Darkness Energies, Switch, and Poke / Master Ball trainers.
Battle Road Spring 2007
Battle Road Spring 2007 was comprised of 9 tournaments across 7 different venues nationwide. As with previous years, in order to participate, players had to fill out a pre-application form on the official Pokemon TCG website to enter the lottery by February 16, 2007.
Selected players would receive instructions on how to attend their regional tournament, held at the following locations and dates.
- Kansai A tournament: Asia & Pacific Trade Center (ATC), Osaka on March 17, 2007.
- Kansai B tournament: Asia & Pacific Trade Center (ATC), Osaka on March 18, 2007.
- Tōhoku tournament: Aztec Museum, Sendai on March 25, 2007.
- Kyūshū tournament: Fukuoka Fashion Building, Fukuoka on March 25, 2007.
- Kantō A tournament: Tokyo Ryutsu Center, Tokyo on March 31, 2007.
- Kantō B tournament: Tokyo Ryutsu Center, Tokyo on April 1, 2007.
- Hokkaidō tournament: Sapporo Convention Center, Sapporo on April 1, 2007.
- Chūbu tournament: Nagoya Trade & Industry Center, Nagoya on April 8, 2007.
- Chūgoku/Shikoku tournament: Hiroshima Industrial Hall, Hiroshima on April 8, 2007.
All participants in the Battle Road Spring 2007 tournament received a set of 2 non-holo promo cards: a Pikachu and a Gible, both with a new “item holding” mechanic. They also received a Lv. 1 trainer badge featuring grass DP starter, Turtwig. This was a homage to the Lv. 1 – 3 trainer badges originally given away at the Lizardon Mega Battles in 1999.
Players that made it past the qualifying league and into the final tournament were rewarded with a cosmos holofoil copy of Bebe’s Search and a Lv.2 Trainer badge, featuring Turtwig’s evolution, Grotle. The number of players who made it into the final tournament varied by age division, as it’s reported that the juniors division only had 8 finalists, while the masters division had as many as 32.
The top 3 winners were awarded with a Mysterious Pearl card, presented in an acrylic shield case like with previous battle roads. A total of 81 copies of this card were thus distributed in this manner (3 winners, 3 age divisions, 9 tournaments), but this card was also later given out at the Winter Challenge, making the total distribution impossible to calculate. These winners also received a Lv. 3 Trainer badge featuring Turtwig’s final form, Torterra.
The 1st place winner of each age division at Battle Road Spring 2007 earned an invitation to the 2007 World Championships. This totaled 27 invites from Japan for the international tournament held later in the summer on August 10-12, 2007.
Battle Road Summer 2007
The tournament circuit resumed on July 15, 2007 with Battle Road Summer 2007. Like previous summer tournaments, this tournament was held at a coinciding Pokemon Festa 2007 event. Pokemon Festa events are nationwide events that celebrate the Pokemon TCG, anime, and video games. This year’s Pokemon Festa was themed as “Pokemon Pal City”.
Unlike the spring tournament, participants were not able to pre-register for Battle Road Summer 2007. Instead, players were accepted on the day of the event. Each venue had priority admission from 8:30 AM – 11:30 AM local time.
- Kyūshū tournament: Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome, Fukuoka on July 15 and 16, 2007.
- Tōhoku region tournament: Aztec Museum, Sendai on July 21 and 22, 2007.
- Hokkaidō tournament: Sapporo Community Dome, Sapporo on July 28 and 29, 2007.
- Kantō A tournament: Makuhari Messe, Chiba on August 4 and 5, 2007.
- Chūbu tournament: Port Messe Nagoya, Nagoya on August 11 and 12, 2007.
- Kantō B tournament: Pacifico Yokohama, Yokohama on August 18 and 19, 2007.
- Chūgoku tournament: Hiroshima Sun Plaza, Hiroshima on August 25 and 26, 2007.
- Kansai tournament: Kyocera Dome Osaka, Osaka between August 31 and September 2, 2007.
Participants received a special Pal City promo card, with a different card artwork being given out at each tournament location. Each card also displays the location it was given out in. Since there were 7 venues in total, there are 7 different variants of this card. They would also receive a Lv. 1 Trainer badge, this time featuring the DP water starter, Piplup.
Kyushu tournament
Tohoku tournament
Hokkaido tournament
Kanto tournament
Chubu tournament
Chugoku tournament
Kansai tournament
The artwork for each promo card shows a Pikachu dome in it. this dome was present at each of the Pokemon Festa venues as part of Pal City.
Players who made it to the final tournament were given a cosmos holofoil promo card, Roseanne’s Research.
The regional tournaments had in total 384 final tournament spots. This multiplied by the 3 age divisions means a total of 1,152 copies of this card were given out via this method.
While this is the only officially documented method of distribution, the PSA population of this card implies that there were quite a bit more distributed.
Multiple blog posts report that players might’ve been given the card upon winning a certain number of games in a row (ex: 3 games) during the qualifier at some venues, even if they lost afterwards. Due to the “Stage” tournament structured used in the summer tournaments, they would then get to re-queue up and try again to make it to the finals. This means that they didn’t actually have to make it to the final tournament to receive the promo card.
Players who made it to the final tournament also received a Lv. 2 trainer badge featuring Piplup’s evolution, Prinplup.
1st through 3rd place winners received a Miracle Diamond promo card, presented in a similar trophy case as the Mysterious Pearls from the Spring tournament. The summer events each had two 3rd place winners, unlike the spring tournaments where tiebreakers were used to determine a true top 3. This means that each Battle Road Summer 2007 tournament produced 4 Miracle Diamond cards. With 8 total events and 3 age divisions, 96 total copies of the card were distributed in 2007. Miracle Diamonds would be given away yet again in the 2008 Battle Road tournaments.
These 1st – 3rd place players also all received a Lv. 3 Trainer badge featuring Piplup’s final evolution, Empoleon. They were also given a sealed pack of all 7 Pokemon Pal City promos, regardless of which regional tournament they were at.
1st place winners for each age division were invited to the Champions League Summer 2007 event, where they could win a spot to represent Japan in the 2008 World Championships. They were also given 1 box (20 packs) of the newest Shining Darkness TCG expansion.
Side Events (Corners)
Both the spring and summer tournaments had multiple side events, many of which distributed exclusive promo cards.
Diamond vs. Pearl One Day Battle
Available at: Battle Road Spring
All participants who joined this side event were split into 2 groups: Team Diamond, or Team Pearl. They would then battle against another random member of the opposing team. Participants’ decks had to be 30 cards, and have at least 4 cards from the Pokemon DP1 or onward expansion in them. At the end of the side event’s time limit, whichever team had the most points would win special red card sleeves. All participants also received a set of 2 cosmos holofoil promo cards: Armor Fossil and Skull Fossil.
Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai One Day Battle
Available at: Battle Road Summer
This side event was an evolution on the Diamond vs. Pearl One Day Battles that were held earlier at Battle Road Spring 2007. Instead of just having 2 teams, players were divided into 3 teams (Dialga, Palkia, and Darkrai) based on their player ID number that they got when registering for the event. Similar to the spring tournament’s side event, players would use 30-card decks (with at least 4 cards from DP expansions) to play matches, and the team with the most total wins would be victorious.
All participants got a cosmos holofoil Pikachu promo card for participating, and the winning team members were rewarded with a cosmos holofoil Professor Oak’s Visit. There was also an “Excellence Award” given out to certain players, which earned them a Time-Space Distortion.
Prize Get Battle DP
Available at: Battle Road Spring
At this side event, players brought a 30-card deck and played a 3-prize match against another player. The winning player would get a lottery ticket. Players could re-enter this side event as many times they wanted on a first-come, first-serve basis to get more tickets. At the end of the day, a winner would be drawn from these lottery tickets to win a special Pokemon Center Nintendo DS Lite with a Palkia & Dialga design. Other prizes were also available for this lottery, such as card sleeves and DS games.
Team Battle DP
Available at: Battle Road Spring
This was a 3-person team battle side event. Teams with one or more players in the junior age division would be placed into the “junior league”, and teams with no age restrictions would be in the “open league”.
They would then play 1v1 games against members of another team. The team with the most wins out of the 3 player matchups would each win a promo copy of Time Space Distortion.
This card would be given away again later the same year during the Winter Challenge.
Pokemon TCG First Classroom DP
Available at: Battle Road Summer
Unlike the other side events, this one was not free to enter, and cost 300 yen. It was an interactive activity that taught kids how to play the Pokemon TCG. It was divided into Pikachu, Piplup, Turtwig, and Chimchar classes. Children would pick a class to join, and then would be loaned decks to play with to learn the game.
At the end of the class, they would receive a cosmos holofoil Pokemon card corresponding to their class, as well as a playmat and a “Pokemon TCG First Book”. These cards would be later re-released as non-holos in the 2008 Entry Pack DX.
Entry Battle / Entry Tournament
Available at: Battle Road Summer
This side event was a small tournament that used preconstructed 30-card decks. It was meant for beginners, specifically those who had just completed the “Pokemon TCG First Class DP” activity. Players who participated in this event would earn a cosmos holofoil Pikachu promo card.
Tag Battle DP
Available at: Battle Road Summer
This side event was a 2v2 tag team tournament where two players played with just one deck. It was open to both children and their parents. Similar to Tag Battles at previous Battle Roads, players utilized a special “Touch Exchange” trainer card, which was distributed to all participants. 2-4 copies of this card were inserted into 60-card decks for this event.
Touch Exchange 2007’s artwork had changed from the previous year’s, but the card’s effect remained the same. Cosmos holofoil Plusle and Minun promo card were also given away as “Excellence” awards to players.
Challenge PCL & Gym Leader
Available at: Battle Road Summer
This side event allowed players to challenge staff members dressed as Gym Leaders from the Diamond & Pearl games, or even face members of the Pokemon Card Laboratory (PCL), who worked on designing / balancing the TCG. Winners would receive badges for defeating them.
Players Gym
Available at: Battle Road Spring, Battle Road Summer
Similar to tournaments dating all the way back to the early years of the TCG, Players gyms were side events run by local members of the Players Club. Playing in or hosting a Players gym would earn attendees and club members EXP points.
PCL Deck Advice Corner
Available at: Battle Road Spring, Battle Road Summer
This area was staffed by members of the Pokemon Card Laboratory (PCL), who worked on the design and balance of the Pokemon TCG. They were available to look at players’ decks and give advice on how to improve them.
Pokemon Card Game Players Club
Available at: Battle Road Spring, Battle Road Summer
This corner continued to be present at every single official tournament. it was where existing members of the Pokemon Players Club could come to get EXP, or new members could register. If a player registered at the Battle Road 2007 events, they would immediately earn enough EXP to get the 2000 EXP reward cards: Turtwig, Piplup, and Chimchar. 1000 EXP was awarded for registering, 500 EXP for visiting the corner, and another 500 EXP for participating in an official event.
Sales Corner
Available at: Battle Road Spring, Battle Road Summer
Another constant presence at every official tournament, this corner sold various official merchandise and Pokemon Center goods. Notably at Battle Road Summer 2007, this corner sold booster packs of the World Champions Pack, a special Japanese expansion containing cards from the English-exclusive EX Power Keepers set, as well as reprints of promotional cards like the Gold Star Eevee evolutions from the Pokemon Players Club.
The special set was first available in first edition through the Pokémon Card Game website and at Summer Battle Road 2007 venues. It was intended for Japanese players so they would not be at a disadvantage at the 2007 World Championships. Japanese players could order their packs online from June 15 until July 1. Packs were released from July 5 onward to those who had ordered them.
At the summer tournaments, each of these packs were sold for 500 yen (including tax).
Legacy
Battle Road 2007 continued the multi-year tradition of a large series spring and summer regional tournaments. In particular, 2007 had the most different kinds of promo cards issued out of any year, with multiple kinds of participation promos and exclusive holofoil promos given away at the side events.
A smaller non-Battle Road tournament series would be held in the winter, known as Winter Challenge 2007. The Battle Road tournaments would resume for a final time with Battle Road 2008.
Sources
- https://pokeboon.com/jp/promo_event/battle-road-spring-2007/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20090228083226/http://www.pokemon-card.com/event/report/070322.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20070322050235/http://www.pokemon-card.com/event/index.html#061124_1
- https://web.archive.org/web/20070208024741/http://www.pokemon-card.com/event/061124_3_1.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20070216153206/http://www.pokemon-card.com/event/061225.html
- https://maneblog.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-609.html
- http://blog.livedoor.jp/zex/archives/cat_260533.html
- http://gongonbe.web.fc2.com/palcity.htm
- https://web.archive.org/web/20070701021831/http://www.pokemon-card.com/event/070622.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20080725072946/http://www.pokemon-card.com/event/battleroad2007/report_kyusyu.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20090228083231/http://www.pokemon-card.com/event/report/070413.html
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- https://web.archive.org/web/20080704132948/http://www.pokemon-card.com/event/battleroad2007/regulation.html#honsen
