TPCi Sending Out Unreleased Staff Promos to Pokemon Leagues!

Following the release of November 2020’s Vivid Voltage, TPCi announced it would stop distributing staff promos at prereleases. This went into effect with March 2021’s Battle Styles.

No official reason was ever given, but we speculated it was because staff promos had been hoarded, scalped, and sold for high prices on the secondary market. After all, they were intended to be used as rewards for event staff. The pandemic’s impact probably played a part as well; there wouldn’t be any events for staff to receive said promos.

Staff promos eventually returned with November 2022’s Silver Tempest. This meant seven sets — from Battle Styles to Lost Origin — never saw the release of staff promos. The only exception was a few Chilling Reign Cinderace promos that were accidentally mixed in to Build & Battle Boxes at the factory, the first of which surfaced in Europe. This meant at least some the staff promos had been printed, but were being withheld.

Now TPCi’s European branch has started shipping out some of the missing staff promos to Pokemon Leagues. This includes four of the seven missing sets: Evolving Skies, Brilliant Stars, Astral Radiance, Lost Origin, and Silver Tempest. However, Battle Styles, Chilling Reign, and Fusion Strike have been left out for unknown reasons. Thanks goes to Garbotoxin for sending us the photos below!

It’s currently unclear if TPCi will send these promos out to Pokemon Leagues outside of Europe.