CGC Certifies Two Chinese Tournament Promo Pokémon Cards

CGC Cards™ recently certified some interesting Pokémon promo cards from a 2024 championship event. These cards — a Victory Proof and a Rare Candy — are trophy cards that were given out to third-place finalists of the Shenzhen Master Tournament in Shenzhen, China. The cards received grades of CGC Pristine 10 and CGC Gem Mint 10, respectively.

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After launching the Pokémon TCG in Hong Kong and Taiwan in Traditional Chinese in 2019, The Pokémon Company announced that it would also be releasing cards in Simplified Chinese to audiences in Mainland China starting in 2022. To catch up with Japan’s releases, Simplified Chinese cards are released as compilation sets, including cards from the Sun & Moon and Sword & Shield eras.

Although Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese Pokémon cards look alike — aside from the obvious translation differences — Simplified Chinese cards sometimes have different or exclusive artwork depending on the set. For example, different artwork is featured in the Simplified Chinese version of Pokémon 151 (a.k.a. the "Collect 151 Pack" in Mainland China). This makes Simplified Chinese cards very valuable to collectors.

Due to the relatively recent release of Pokémon cards in Simplified Chinese, The Pokémon Company has only started to introduce a tournament circuit in Mainland China. Before the release of Simplified Chinese cards, The Pokémon Company only allowed Traditional Chinese and English cards to be used in tournament decks. However, now that Simplified Chinese cards have been around for several years — and cards from several sets are now legal and viable for deck building — The Pokémon Company began allowing Simplified Chinese cards in tournaments, with the Shenzhen Master Tournament being the most recent competition to feature them.

The Shenzhen Master Tournament took place in Shenzhen in December 2024. Similar to other Pokémon TCG tournaments, the semi-finalists and finalists in the Shenzhen Master Tournament each took home a variety of prizes, including these promo cards. Each semi-finalist received both a Victory Proof, Pokémon (2024) Simplified Chinese Sword & Shield Promo and a Rare Candy, Pokémon (2024) Simplified Chinese Sword & Shield Promo.