For many years, people have speculated on what might have been the prize card for the 2011 Japan National Championships (within Japan, this event is somewhat confusingly titled the World Championships). This tournament was canceled due to the tragic 2011 tsunami and earthquakes.
If you search the forums, a few years ago, we received our first glimpse at planned promo cards for this tournament. A set of these cards were recently graded by CGC.
As for the Trophy card, we can finally confirm that the Regional Battle Festa trophy card Victory Cup from 2011 - 2013 was originally intended to debut as the Japan National Championship trophy card. You can see these variants have the 2011 logo:
These are not my cards, the owner would like to remain private for now.
This explains why the Victory Cup was distributed in English for Fall Battle Roads 2011 prior to being “released” in Japan. The artwork had already been created and the card was supposed to have been released months prior.
I only have a picture of the Bronze and Silver cups, not the Gold.
The set of promo cards graded by CGC and these victory cups are from the same massive collection in Japan that was purchased by Rare Candy two years ago. The seller very likely had professional ties to Pokémon.
