Loosely inspired by the Battle Road events held in Japan from 2002 – 2008, the American Pokemon Organized Play (POP) system would launch an identically named series of tournaments called “Battle Road” in the summer of 2007.

These tournaments would reward special Victory Medal promo cards, which re-used artwork from previously issued Japanese copies. The cards would each feature stamps denoting their years and seasons. There would be two tournament series per year, with a spring and autumn circuit.

A huge thanks to Trainer Jack for a majority of the writing and research into these events!

Autumn Victory Medal (US Battle Road 2007) (Unnumbered)

Victory Medal (Gym Challenge 2006) (Unnumbered)

Later American Battle Road events would switch to awarding Victory Cup promo cards. In Japan, these were awarded only to winners of large regional tournaments, making the English versions much, much more common.

Autumn 2011 Victory Cup (31/BW English Promo)

Autumn 2011 Victory Cup (30/BW English Promo)

Autumn 2011 Victory Cup (29/BW English Promo)

Victory Cup (Battle Carnival 2011) (BW-P)

Victory Cup (Battle Carnival 2011) (BW-P)

Victory Cup (Battle Carnival 2011) (BW-P)

Differences between Japan & America’s Battle Roads

Japan’s Battle Road tournaments were massive regional tournaments, with only 7-9 locations nationwide per year. They were all held at big convention centers or exhibition halls. These Japanese tournaments had thousands of attendees and hundreds of competitiors.

In contrast, America’s Battle Road events were local events, hosted in hundreds of local game / hobby shops across America. These small-scale tournaments likely had anywhere from 16 – 64 players in each.

The Battle Road series is designed to provide players with small, entry-level events on a local scale. Battle Road Spring tournaments give players another opportunity to work on their premier ratings, potentially earning an invite and trip to Worlds. 

Description of the American Battle Road tournaments from the official website in 2008

Therefore the American Battle Road events were much more similar to the Official Pokemon Gym events held in Japan from 2003 – 2007. These events also awarded the same gold and silver Pikachu medal cards, albeit without event stamps.

Tournament Structure

American Battle Road events were held by independent Premiere Tournament Organizers (PTO), usually at local game stores where anyone could enter. Each PTO ran all premiere Pokemon TCG tournaments within their territories, which included Prereleases, Battle Roads, and City Championships. Some PTOs were chosen to run State Championships, and then even fewer ran Regional Championships.

Battle Roads would use the Premier Rating system. This system would later be updated in the 2011 – 2012 tournament circuits to use the Championship Points system.

Premier Rating and k-value

The tournaments were ways for players to up their Premier Ratings in hopes of winning a trip to Worlds. The Premier Rating was how The Pokemon Company(TPC) ranked their players during much of the time Battle Roads occurred in North America.

It worked off an Elo system where each player would start with a rating of 1600 and win or lose points based off of game performance. Each event would also have a k-value which would determine the competition level of the tournament.

Here are some excerpts explaining it courtesy of the POP Ratings and Rankings FAQs page from the era:

How does my rating change after each match?

There are two parts to determining how many points you will win or lose in a match: Win Expectancy (which is based on comparing your rating to your opponent’s), and the number points won or lost(which we’ll call the ‘stake’), which is based on the Win Expectancy.

Win Expectancy:

The formula below is used to figure out your expected percentage chance to defeat your opponent:

1 / *1 + 10 ^ ((Opponent’s Rating – Your Rating) / 400)]

It looks complicated, but it boils down to this: if your rating is even with your opponent’s, the Win

Expectancy is 50%. Players with high ratings are ‘expected’ to beat players with lower ratings more often than they lose to those players, so your Win Expectancy goes up if you are rated higher than your opponent, and down if you are rated lower.

What’s at Stake?

Second, we figure out how many points you should gain if you win. This amount is based on the Win Expectancy, the Outcome of the match, and what is called the ‘k-value’.

The k-value represents the competition level of the tournament, with larger numbers reflecting higher levels of competition.

The ‘Outcome’ of the match is 1 if you win and 0 if you lose. The winner of the match will gain points equal to the stake and the loser will lose the same number of points.

The Stake can be calculated with this formula:

Stake = k-value * (Outcome – Win Expectancy)

The stake is smaller if the higher rated player wins the match – they were expected to win, after all. If the underdog wins the match, the stake is larger to reward the achievement.

American Battle Road FAQs

The k-value varied over the years. As such, it was a hot point of discussion at times throughout the run of the Battle Roads amongst the competitive community.

Age Divisions

Similar to the Japanese Battle Roads, there were 3 divisions: Junior, Senior, and Masters. Based on the year a player was born, they would be placed into one of these divisions with Junior being the youngest, and Masters being the oldest.

All of the tournaments were run using the Modified Constructed Format and Age Modified Swiss pairings. This meant that each Battle Road would go off of a list of legal cards allowed in deck construction and that players were to be paired against opponents by their record and age division.

However, this was not consistently enforced like in Japanese events. Depending on certain circumstances players may have battled those in other divisions than their own. Specifically depending on the size of the event organizers may have opted for a straight pairing disregarding age groups.

Battle Roads were never single elimination tournaments. Placement was determined by a player’s final Swiss standing.

Seasonal Timing and Tournament Numbers

Much like their Japanese counterparts, the American Battle Roads had multiple seasons happening in Fall and Spring respectively. They would usually occur around May and June for the Spring versions and September and October for the Fall versions.

Circuits would start in the autumn and then continue into the spring of the next year before the World Championships in the summer. Within a circuit, Battle Road tournaments would be held around once a quarter. During the first year of the American Battle Road (2006), only a spring circuit was held.

Unlike their Japanese counterparts however, these were very widespread tournaments all across North America. Battle Roads outside of Japan were one of the lowest competitive levels of POP (later Play! Pokemon), and thus don’t have a confirmed event number.

2006 – 2007 Battle Road

These were the first Battle Roads held outside of Japan and ran from May 26th through June 24th, 2007.

Battle Road Spring 2007

They were advertised as the Battle Road Spring 2006-2007 Tournaments even though none of them took place in 2006. This is because they were a part of the greater 2006-2007 season with everything past Worlds held in August to next year’s worlds counting as one season.

Format

Each format had a list of sets that were allowed to be used. For the 2006 – 2007 season, the follow sets were legal:

These sets are what’s explicitly stated on their Official Tournaments format list sheet at the time, but it also has this excerpt:

In addition, future Pokémon USA, Inc., releases will become legal as they are released, per the Pokémon Organized Play Tournament Rules.

Battle Road Rules

So it can be inferred that sets such as Dragon Frontiers, Power Keepers, POP Series 5 Promo Cards, continued BSP releases, and potentially Diamond and Pearl were also allowed at these events judging by the date. 

These tournaments had a k-value of 32. 

K-value Controversy

A k-value of 32 at these events was decently high. Though lower than all other premier events (besides City Championships which it shared its point total) Battle Roads had the distinction of being more frequent and widespread than other events at the time.

State Championships (36 k-value) would only have 1 per state. Regionals (40 k-value) and Nationals (44 k-value) would have higher k-values but be less frequent. This made Battle Roads, which took place usually over a month span and over multiple locations across states, a way for players to quickly grow or decrease there premier rating.

Starting in the 2006-2007 season players could win a slot at the World Championships through their premier rating. As such, losing large amounts of points in quick succession could put off players with higher totals from participating in Battle Roads. Thus, players with higher rankings would shy away from the Battle Road events as wins would give them minimal points but losses could result in huge swings downwards.

On the other side of the coin, these tournaments would be a great benefit to those with lower ranking to try and raise them quickly. After this year, Pokemon changed the k-value rather substantially, perhaps due to this early criticism.

Prizes

Prizes were given out to 1st and 2nd place winners at these tournaments. 1st place would receive 8 Pokemon TCG booster packs and a gold Victory medal promo stamped with the Battle Road logo. This card used the same artwork as the gold Victory Medals given out to winners of the 2005 & 2006 Japanese Gym Final battle tournaments.

Spring Victory Medal (US Battle Road 2006) (Unnumbered)

Victory Medal (Gym Final 2005) (Unnumbered)

During 2006, only a Spring Battle Road was held, so this year’s circuit only had 1 associated Victory medal. Subsequent years would feature a different stamp for each of the spring and autumn seasons of the tournaments.

2nd place would receive 4 Pokemon TCG booster packs, but no Victory medal.

2007 – 2008 Battle Road

The American Battle Road circuits would resume in the autumn of 2007. Unlike the previous year, this would feature both autumn and spring tournaments.

Battle Road Autumn 2007

The first Autumn Battle Roads took place from September 22nd 2007 through October 14th 2007 at local tournaments across America.

Format

The legal sets and cards allowed to be used in these tournaments were:

This list comes from the 2007-2008 Official Tournaments Format document, which was updated on 9/1/2007 so no more cards besides potentially POP Series 7 and promos released before or during the tournament time were legal for use.

The events now sported a new k-value of 8, which was significantly less than their spring counterparts.

This change made Battle Road events the lowest value tournament of the premier series at the time. Looking at all of the other premier events of the year going forward, the only events that changed their k-values were City Championships (32 to 16) and State Championships (36 to 32). Such a major drop for Battle Roads could be an indicator that the k-value controversy from the previous year’s spring tournaments may have been factored into the new system.

Prizes

Similar to the previous 2006 Battle Road spring tournaments, 1st and 2nd place both received prizes. 1st place received 8 Pokemon TCG booster packs and a silver Victory Medal card with the event stamp on it.

This card used the same artwork as the silver Victory Medals given out to winners of the Japanese Gym Challenge tournaments.

Autumn Victory Medal (US Battle Road 2007) (Unnumbered)

Victory Medal (Gym Challenge 2005) (Unnumbered)

Gold medals would be later given out in the spring tournaments on this circuit, setting the precedent that the autumn tournaments would award silver medals, with the spring ones awarding gold ones.

2nd place would receive 4 Pokemon TCG booster packs, but no Victory medal.

Battle Road Spring 2008

The 2007 – 2008 Battle Road circuit concluded with spring tournaments which ran from May 24th to June 15th, 2008. These Spring tournaments were run almost identically to the 2007 Autumn tournaments.

Format

The legal sets and cards allowed to be used in these tournaments were:

The k-value for these tournaments remained at 8.

Prizes

These tournaments would again award 1st and 2nd place with prizes. 1st place would receive a gold Victory Medal with the Battle Road Spring 2007 – 2008 stamp and 8 Pokemon TCG booster packs.

Spring Victory Medal (US Battle Road 2007) (Unnumbered)

Though looking similar to the previously issued spring Victory Medals, there were a few changes to the card, namely that the card frame changed from the ADV-style frame to the DP-style ones.

2nd place would not receive a Victory Medal promo and would only get

2008 – 2009 Battle Road

The American Battle Road circuits would resume in the autumn of 2008, with only a minor change to the tournaments’ k-value (dropping from 8 to 4).

Battle Road Autumn 2008

The second Battle Roads of 2008 and the first of the 2008-2009 circuit ran from September 20th, 2008 through October 12th, 2008.

Format

The legal sets and cards allowed to be used in these tournaments were:

EX era sets were completely replaced with Diamond & Pearl cards, and the k-value dropped to 4. Along with this State, Regional, and National Championships would all share a value of 32–a first for POP’s circuit.

Prizes

These tournaments would again award 1st and 2nd place with prizes. 1st place would receive a silver Victory Medal with the Battle Road Autumn 2008 – 2009 stamp and 8 Pokemon TCG booster packs.

Autumn Victory Medal (US Battle Road 2008) (Unnumbered)

2nd place would not receive a Victory medal promo card and would only get 4 Pokemon TCG booster packs.

Battle Road Spring 2009

The spring portion of the 2008 – 2009 circuit ran from May 23rd to June 14th, 2009.

Format

The legal sets and cards allowed to be used in these tournaments were:

Prizes

These tournaments would again award 1st and 2nd place with prizes. 1st place would receive a gold Victory Medal with the Battle Road Spring 2008 – 2009 stamp and 8 Pokemon TCG booster packs.

Spring Victory Medal (US Battle Road 2008) (Unnumbered)

2nd place would not receive a Victory medal promo card and would only get 4 Pokemon TCG booster packs.

2009 – 2010 Battle Road

The 2009 – 2010 Battle Road circuit would be the final years that the silver and gold Pikachu Victory Medal cards would be awarded. In future years, the medal design would change.

Battle Road Autumn 2009

The second Battle Roads of 2009 and the first of the 2009-2010 circuit ran from September 19th through October 11th, 2009.

Format

The legal sets and cards allowed to be used in these tournaments were:

The k-value for this year’s tournaments continued to be 4.

Prizes

These tournaments would now award 1st – 4th place with prizes. 1st place would receive a silver Victory Medal with the Battle Road Autumn 2009 – 2010 stamp and 4 Pokemon TCG booster packs (down from 8).

Autumn Victory Medal (US Battle Road 2009) (Unnumbered)

2nd place would not receive a Victory medal promo card and would get 4 Pokemon TCG booster packs.

3rd & 4th place would each get 2 Pokemon TCG booster packs (up from nothing).

Battle Road Spring 2010

The spring tournaments ran from late May into June 2010.

Format

The legal sets and cards allowed to be used in these tournaments were:

Prizes

Similar to the autumn tournaments, these tournaments would now award 1st – 4th place with prizes. 1st place would receive a gold Victory Medal with the Battle Road Spring 2009 – 2010 stamp and 4 Pokemon TCG booster packs (down from 8).

Spring Victory Medal (US Battle Road 2009) (Unnumbered)

2nd place would not receive a Victory medal promo card and would get 4 Pokemon TCG booster packs.

3rd & 4th place would each get 2 Pokemon TCG booster packs.

2010 – 2011 Battle Road

The 2010 – 2011 tournament circuit would introduce a new design for the Victory medal cards. They would again feature autumn and spring tournaments.

Battle Road Autumn 2010

The autumn tournaments of the 2010 – 2011 circuit ran from September 18th, 2010 through October 10th, 2010.

Format

The legal sets and cards allowed to be used in these tournaments were:

The k-value for these tournaments remained at 4.

Prizes

These tournaments continued to award 1st – 4th place with prizes. 1st place would receive a silver Victory Medal and 4 Pokemon TCG booster packs. This new design featured Typhlosion and a new Play! Pokemon logo that replaced the Battle Road stamp.

This Typhlosion medal was previously awarded at the Japanese Challenge Hiroba events in January of 2010.

It is likely that the Typhlosion medal was chosen since it had both gold and silver versions, whereas most of the other medals only had one or the other in Japan.

Autumn Victory Medal (US Battle Road 2010) (Unnumbered)

Victory Medal (042/L-P Japanese Promo)

2nd place would not receive a Victory medal promo card and would get 4 Pokemon TCG booster packs.

3rd & 4th place would each get 2 Pokemon TCG booster packs.

Battle Road Spring 2011

The spring tournaments of the 2010 – 2011 circuit ran from May 21st  to June 12th, 2011.

Format

The legal sets and cards allowed to be used in these tournaments were:

• HeartGold & SoulSilver 
• HS—Unleashed 
• HS- Undaunted 
• HS- Triumphant Call of Legends 
• Black & White 
• HS Trainer Kit 
• Black Star Promo Cards numbered HGSS01 and higher and Black Star Promo Cards numbered BW01 and higher

Note the change to the format happened in the middle of Battle Road’s run on June 9, 2011 so it can be inferred all sets listed in the fall 2010 structure could be used until then. Not only were all DPPt era cards phased out of the format now, but the introduction of Black White sets also took place.

The k-value for these tournaments remained at 4.

Prizes

These tournaments continued to award 1st – 4th place with prizes. 1st place would receive a gold Victory Medal and 4 Pokemon TCG booster packs. This new design featured Typhlosion and a new Play! Pokemon logo that replaced the Battle Road stamp.

This Typlosion medal was given to those who won 2 consecutive times at the Knockout Battle events at the Japanese Pokemon Battle Challenge events, held from October 17 – December 27, 2009 across Japan.

Spring Victory Medal (US Battle Road 2011) (Unnumbered)

Victory Medal (027/L-P Japanese Promo)

2nd place would not receive a Victory medal promo card and would get 4 Pokemon TCG booster packs.

3rd & 4th place would each get 2 Pokemon TCG booster packs.

2011 – 2012 Battle Road

The 2011 – 2012 American Battle Road Circuits would significantly change the scoring system for these local tournaments. A new points system called “Championship Points” would largely replace the previous Elo system and its k-values.

Championship Points System

Pokémon Championship Series events will now award Championship Points for top finishers. These points are cumulative, meaning you’ll never lose a point on the way to your ultimate goal of earning an invitation to the Pokémon World Championships!

What Happens to my Elo Rating Now that Championship Points Are Used for Event Qualification?

Elo ratings will still be maintained on the Pokémon.com website, and may be used to break ties in Championship Points if necessary. The Elo rankings search will still be available for players to see how they stack up against players worldwide.

Official Play! Pokemon website

Elo rating and k-value would still exist in Play! Pokemon, but would not hold nearly as much value, as Championship points were the main determinant of ranking. Elo was only used to compare a player’s score to other’s in the event of a tiebreaker. Players could no longer get to Worlds with their Elo rating.

Another point system introduced was Play! Points, which replaced the existing rewards program at the time. Players would earn these points by simply attending events, and certain events would give you more points depending on location. 

Battle Roads this season would continue to run with a k-value of 4.

Battle Road 2011 Autumn

These new autumn tournaments ran from September 17th through October 16th, 2011.

Format

The legal sets and cards allowed to be used in these tournaments were:

• HeartGold & SoulSilver 
• HS—Unleashed 
• HS- Undaunted 
• HS- Triumphant Call of Legends 
• Black & White 
• HS Trainer Kit 
• Black Star Promo Cards numbered HGSS01 and higher and Black Star Promo Cards numbered BW01 and higher

Prizes

Prizes were also heavily overhauled along with the new Championship Points system. Now instead of only the 1st place winner getting the Victory Medal cards, 1st-3rd place each received a Victory Cup promo card denoting their placement. Each of these was also stamped with the Battle Road season and year.

Autumn 2011 Victory Cup (31/BW English Promo)

Autumn 2011 Victory Cup (30/BW English Promo)

Autumn 2011 Victory Cup (29/BW English Promo)

These cards used the same art as the Victory Cup trophy cards given away at the 2011 Japanese Battle Carnival events.

Victory Cup (Battle Carnival 2011) (BW-P)

Victory Cup (Battle Carnival 2011) (BW-P)

Victory Cup (Battle Carnival 2011) (BW-P)

However, as the English version were still just prizes for local American Battle Road tournaments, they were far more common than their Japanese versions. The Japanese Battle Carnivals were large regional tournaments, with less than 100 copies of each Victory Cup card being issued.

In addition to 1st – 3rd place getting the new Victory Cup promo cards, the top 8 players all got some form of prizing.

1 Play! Point was also awarded to all participants.

Battle Road 2012 Spring

The spring tournaments ran from May 19th through June 10th, 2012. They were identical to the ones which ran earlier in the autumn.

Format

The legal sets and cards allowed to be used in these tournaments were:

• HeartGold & SoulSilver 
• HS—Unleashed 
• HS- Undaunted 
• HS- Triumphant Call of Legends 
• Black&White 
• BW: Emerging Powers
• BW: Noble Victories
• BW: Next Destinies 
• HS Trainer Kit 
• Black Star Promo Cards numbered HGSS01 and higher and Black Star Promo Cards numbered BW01 and higher

Prizes

Similar to the autumn 2011 tournaments, 1st – 3rd places would get a Victory Cup promo stamped with the Battle Road Spring 2012 graphic.

Spring 2012 Victory Cup (31/BW English Promo)

Spring 2012 Victory Cup (30/BW English Promo)

Spring 2012 Victory Cup (29/BW English Promo)

1 Play! Point was also awarded to all participants.

2012 – 2013 Battle Road

The 2012 – 2013 American Battle Roads would be the final iteration of the Battle Road tournaments. Japan’s Battle Roads had ended (somewhat prematurely due to bomb threat) with Battle Road 2008, so the 2013 American ones would be the last tournaments with that namesake to run globally.

During this final year, Play! Pokemon greatly increased the Championship Point yield from the events.

Battle Road Autumn 2012

The autumn tournaments were held from September 1st through September 30th, 2012.

Format

The legal sets and cards allowed to be used in these tournaments were:

• Black&White 
• BW: Emerging Powers
• BW: Noble Victories
• BW: Next Destinies 
• BW: Dark Explorers
• HS Trainer Kit 
• Black Star Promo Cards numbered HGSS01 and higher and Black Star Promo Cards numbered BW01 and higher.

Prizes

Similar to the 2011 – 2012 tournaments, 1st – 3rd places would get a Victory Cup promo stamped with the Battle Road Autumn 2012 graphic.

Autumn 2012 Victory Cup (31/BW English Promo)

Autumn 2012 Victory Cup (30/BW English Promo)

Autumn 2012 Victory Cup (29/BW English Promo)

Prizing was greatly expanded for this final year, with potentially all the way up to 16th place getting Championship Points. Across the board, Championship points were increased as well

1 Play! Point was also awarded to all participants.

Battle Road Spring 2013

These the final Battle Road tournaments to run globally. They took place from May 18th to June 16th, 2013.

Format

The legal sets and cards allowed to be used in these tournaments were:

• Black & White 
• BW: Emerging Powers 
• BW: Noble Victories 
• BW: Next Destinies 
• BW: Dark Explorers 
• BW: Dragons Exalted 
• Dragon Vault
• BW: Boundaries Crossed 
• BW Trainer Kit 
• Black Star Promo Cards numbered BW01 and higher and Black Star Promo Cards numbered BW01 and higher.

Prizes

Similar to the 2011 – 2012 tournaments, 1st – 3rd places would get a Victory Cup promo stamped with the Battle Road Spring 2013 graphic.

Spring 2013 Victory Cup (31/BW English Promo)

Spring 2013 Victory Cup (30/BW English Promo)

Spring 2013 Victory Cup (29/BW English Promo)

1 Play! Point was also awarded to all participants.

Side Events

Some Battle Road events were large enough to also host side events. These were not at every single venue, as most were smaller local shops.

Unlimited

The Unlimited Format which allowed players to use any and all printed Pokemon TCG cards released in the United States.

Limited

Limited events were a common side event where players would open sealed boosters and construct a deck from those cards. These included both sealed events and drafts. There are many different styles of drafts, but Pokemon makes note of 3 key ones Booster, Rochester, and Solomon Drafts.

The official rules for each of these formats can be found in the 2011 Pokemon TCG tournament formats rules.

Legacy

After the 2012-2013 Season came to a close, Premier Ratings were completely dropped along with k-values and a new entry level tournament was established known as the League Challenge.

These events replaced Battle Roads entirely in the Championship Series. They worked functionally the same as the lowest level of competitive play meant to introduce new players to the wider competitive scene. These events would give out similar amount of Championship Points, but the prize cards were no longer cards that had been previously been promo prize cards in Japan. Instead, they were normal set cards with the League Challenge stamp and placements on them.

First Place Solrock (64/146 Pokemon League Special Print)

Second Place Solrock (64/146 Pokemon League Special Print)

Third Place Solrock (64/146 Pokemon League Special Print)

Fourth Place Solrock (64/146 Pokemon League Special Print)

Unlike the American Battle Road events, the League Challenge events would also be held monthly, giving more opportunities to win points and learn the game. These events are still being held today. 

The American Battle Road tournaments throughout 2007-2013 were the framework for the modern League Challenges we still see today. They had many twists and turns to them when it came to k-values and point distributions, but those growing pains paved the way for a more stable and consistent entry level tournament format. Not only that, but Battle Roads gave many Japanese exclusive prize cards the opportunity to be released in English. All in all they played an important role in how Play! Pokemon holds tournaments today.

Sources

Many thanks to Michael Martin for providing more details on the organization of these events!

• https://www.pokebeach.com/2007/04/next-set-dp-dub-preview-japanese-metagame-hoenn-pokerap-new-scans
• https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2007-09-19/pokemon-announces-new-season-of-battle-road-tournaments
• https://pokegym.net/community/index.php?forums/battle-roads.74/page-92
• https://pokegym.net/community/index.php?threads/manipulation-of-the-rating-system-of-the-2007-2008-season.58374/#post-925705
• https://pokegym.net/community/index.php?threads/maximum-k-values.41086/page-2
• https://web.archive.org/web/20110813010552/http://www.pokemon.com/us/organized-play/tournaments/rules/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20070519145326/http://op.pokemon-tcg.com/content/events/