OLD BACK
With help from @prochaos , we are able to find out the exact number of the Old Back Neo Battle Road Boy/Girl Trainers from the 3 events that awarded them. We had the information of the exact breakdown since 2001 from the Trainer Magazines but there was no analysis until today!
*Keep in mind that this breakdown does not include the No Name Trainers.
Before we get into it, lets go into a little bit of history.
These Trainers have artworks with different number of Pokemon in the background depending on its placing. No. 3 has 2 Pokemon (Growlithe & Pikachu), No. 2 has 4 Pokemon (additional Chansey & Doduo) and No. 1 has a full background of 6 Pokemon (additional Voltorb & Marill). The gender of the trainer in the artwork of the card corresponds to the gender of the actual winner, which makes the card extremely unique as it is one the few cards in the hobby to have its artwork tailor made to its winner. Instead of having TRAINER on the title of the card, these have either No.1 TRAINER, No.2 TRAINER or No.3 TRAINER. Each awarded copy has the name of the winner and the location of the event in which the card was won. They have the standard Pocket Monster Logo at the bottom right and the double star rarity.
The Boy/Girl Trainers were first awarded in the World Challenge Tournament in 2000. There were 2 categories for this tournament, namely the Tropical Mega Battle (for the junior competitors) and the Secret Super Battle (for the senior competitors). Each category awarded 10 copies of each No.1s and No.2s and 20 copies of the No.3s.
These Trainers got their now frequently used name from the subsequent event which awarded them, the 2001 Neo Spring/Summer Battle Road Tournaments. These tournaments were separated into 2 categories each, the Junior category and the Senior category. The Spring event had 18 No.1s and No.2s and 36 No.3s while the Summer event had 14 No.1s and No.2s and 28 No.3s.
So in total, there were 52 No.1s and No.2s and 104 No.3s. Now lets get into the juicy part, the number of Boy/Girl Winners.
2000 World Challenge TMB/SSB
From the photo taken from the Trainer Magazine, we can determine the gender of the winners by looking at the end of the winners name. Winners’ name which ends with ‘くん’ (kun) means boy while winners’ name which ends in ‘さん’ (san) means girl in this context. This is true for the later photos for the other events.
Breakdown for WC TMB
No. 1 Trainer : 1 girl 9 boys
No. 2 Trainer : 1 girl 9 boys
No. 3 Trainer : 1 girl 19 boys
Breakdown for WC SSBNo. 1 Trainer : 2 girls 8 boys
No. 2 Trainer : 0 girls 10 boys
No. 3 Trainer : 0 girls 20 boys
2001 NEO Spring Battle Road
Breakdown
No. 1 Trainer : 0 girls 18 boys
No. 2 Trainer : 0 girls 18 boys
No. 3 Trainer : 1 girl 35 boys
2001 NEO Summer Battle Road
Breakdown
No. 1 Trainer : 0 girls 14 boys
No. 2 Trainer : 0 girls 14 boys
No. 3 Trainer : 2 girls 26 boys
TOTAL BREAKDOWN FOR OLD BACK BOY/GIRL TRAINER
No. 1 Trainer : 3 girls 49 boys
No. 2 Trainer : 1 girl 51 boys
No. 3 Trainer : 4 girls 100 boys
With that said, we now have the exact number of the Old Back Boy/Girl Trainer ratio and will find out more info about the New Backs. If someone wants to track the No Name Trainers and add them to the list so we can clearly determine how many Boy/Girl Trainers there are that would be wonderful.
Currently, the Number 2 Old Back Girl Trainer shares the title of being the rarest Old Back Pokemon card with only one in existence with that exact art with the cards with the actual faces of the winners.
NEW BACKCompared to the Old Back, there are some aesthetic differences on the New Backs. First, it is the layout change to e-series. The title of the cards have TRAINERS now but also have the sub-title of No.1 Trainer,No.2 Trainer or No.3 Trainer. The awarded copies also have the name of the winner and the location of the event. These no longer have the Pocket Monster logo nor the double star rarity.
We all knew there were 9 regionals, 3 categories and 2 events, making a total of 54 No.1s, 54 No.2s and 108 No.3s however we are not sure of the ratio of the Boy and Girl Trainers.
Below we will look at the info within Trainer Magazines which shows the photos and names of the winners for the 2002 Battle Road Spring and Summer event. These events award winners with the e-series New Back Boy/Girl Trainer cards. For a quick summary of the exact number of the Boy and Girl Trainers awarded, please scroll to the bottom of this post. For those who would like to savor the moment in which we have finally determined the exact number for the e-series Boy/Girl Trainers and hence the total number of awarded Boy/Girl Trainers, please take your time.
This is made possible with the help of @santokacolletcing on IG for providing Trainer Mag Vol. 18 which contains the info of the winners and for @prochaos again for providing Trainer Mag Vol. 16.
For the New Backs, there are some differences to determine gender mainly due to having a Master category, which the 2000/01 events do not have. The Master category uses ‘さん’ (san) in the magazines which in the previous context mean girls, however as a broader salutation in which every person has that title. The Junior and Senior categories still adhere to the ‘くん’ (kun) meaning boy while ‘さん’ (san) meaning girl concept but the Master category listed everyone as ‘さん’ (san). Unfortunately there is no way to determine gender for the Master category winners other than simply eyeing the winners, which is not the best way to do so. I will point out the female winners for the Master category for completion.
2002 Battle Road Spring
Breakdown
No. 1 Trainer : 1 girl 26 boys
(all boy winners in Masters with one unknown winner with no photo)
No. 2 Trainer : 2 girls 25 boys
(all boy winners in Masters)
No. 3 Trainer : 4 girls 50 boys
(1 girl winner in Masters)
2002 Battle Road Summer
Breakdown
Number 1 Trainer : 3 girls 24 boys
(all boy winners in Masters)
Number 2 Trainer : 1 girl 26 boys
(all boy winners in Masters)
Number 3 Trainer : 4 girls 50 boys
(1 girl winner in Masters)
**TOTAL BREAKDOWN FOR NEW BACK BOY/GIRL TRAINER (e-series)
No. 1 Trainer : 4 girls 50 boys
No. 2 Trainer : 3 girls 51 boys
No. 3 Trainer : 8 girls 100 boys**
With these numbers, we are able to put together the exact number of Boy and Girl Trainers generally (Old Back and New Back).
*Do note that these are awarded copies with the winner’s names and the location of the event. These numbers do not include the no name copies, which should add to the total. This is strictly only for awarded copies.
TOTAL BREAKDOWN FOR BOY/GIRL TRAINER (OLD & NEW BACKS)
No. 1 Trainer : 7 girls 99 boys
No. 2 Trainer : 4 girls 102 boys
No. 3 Trainer : 12 girls 200 boys
With that, we now have the exact number of copies awarded for the Boy and Girl Trainer. All the info are within the Trainer magazines since 2002. Thanks again to @prochaos and @santokacolletcing on IG for providing the info within the magazines.
I hope this will be useful information for current and future collectors.
