I can't take credit for this observation, but someone in this thread pointed out that Champions is a whale game first, last, and only. It's designed for people who are already so addicted to gambling that they'll get down and suck the one-armed bandit's third leg without prompting. There's very little in the way of F2P or low-spending gaming, you're expected to just step up and start paypigging.
Or to put it succinctly: you don't enjoy Champions as a wrestling fan. You enjoy it as a gambling fan, only.
It's more or less also aimed at people who love winning with no effort. Phil loves to win so I figure he likes that part as well. He talked as if he was good back then on Discord. The game has a lot of simple and obscenely busted ways to reward a whale. Phil fits this to a T. How many times have we seen him go "A-HAAAAAAAAAAAAA, I GAHT IT! I DID IT!" when he cracks a puzzle made for literal children, WITH chat's help?
Dude's all about that instant gratification. To most of us, having a game where you just slap the enemy twice and they roll over without even fighting back is entirely pointless. It's not fun or rewarding because it is too easy. It's like playing Yakuza with a one hit kill cheat: You're just cheating yourself out of gameplay. Phil doesn't give a fuck though: Any win's a win. His MO even on games he considers himself competitive at is to purposely find the versions with the largest amount of scrubs and repeatedly dunk on them with his barely-above-average skills.
I really believe it's the combination of gambling AND the game making you feel like you're any good at all for figuring out the right trainer+wrassler combination to bust shit up in two blows, and from Phil's discord messages I reckon he does too. He legit wants to entertain the idea that he's a strong player, not just whale the fuck out. Goes to show just how out of touch he is with reality. Any gamer would consider a gacha whale a massive loser. And the higher up the leaderboard you are, the bigger of a loser. But some people take actual pride in that sort of thing.
In this regard, it creates someting even worse than problem gamblers, it creates addicts that can't afford to not get the competitive drops if they want to stay on top. And they feel they're good additions to their, no joke, STRATEGY. It's like chess, but it allows you to replace every piece on your side of the board with a Queen, as long as you pay. And the other dude has to outbid you or at least match your whaling if he wants the same. The whole thing is a trap for idiots. Fitting as hell that Phil would fall into it.
EDIT: Far as gamblers go, you'd have to be one of the worst problem gamblers to even enjoy a game that's VICIOUSLY rigged, with payout odds as low as 1.3%, offers absolutely no returns, and gets you nothing of value or even much of a good time. Of course, not every gambler does it just to win big, the problematic ones are the ones that gamble just to gamble, win or lose. But I truly believe you could show WWE Champs to a long time slot jockey and even they'd say "Boy, that game is a deathtrap not worth getting a finger into".
