The 2017 Pokemon Championships were four tournament events held prior to the world championship. 2017 is unique in the fact that this was the first year such events were held. I would like to share my research and documentation of the very special cards given out to competitors and staff at these events. All photos are my own cards, Feel free to add information I missed or correct me on any errors, this is my first write up so be easy on me!
The tournaments were held as follows;
Europe International: London, England, December 9–11, 2016
Oceania International: Sydney, Australia, March 10–12, 2017
Latin America International: Sao Paulo, Brazil, April 21–23, 2017.
North America International: Indianapolis, Indiana June 30-July 2, 2017
Each competitor was given a reverse holographic Evolutions double colorless energy (90/108 with the normal Evolutions set symbol) with the respective championship stamp in the lower right hand corner for registering.
EDIT: After handling many of these cards I have noticed that the International stamped cards are glossy as compared to the other three which resemble a normal reverse Evolutions DCE
Staff members were given a variant of the above mentioned DCE with a gold staff logo much like a regional or prerelease event card in the upper left hand corner. I have noticed a discrepancy in that the staff stamp on Oceania variants is much lower than the others.
Players lucky enough to make it to the top 8 of each event were awarded a card stamped “Top 8” in the upper left hand corner. Each event has three divisions: Juniors, Seniors, and Masters, as well as two separate tournaments that went on at the same time, TCG and VGC. Each event handed out 48 “Top 8” cards with a grand total of 192 in total between the four championships.
Finally each winner was awarded a copy with the “Champion” stamp in the upper left corner. Six were handed out at each event making them the rarest at only 24 copies in total between the four championships.
