I'm surprised no one here mentioned(at least lately) as to why Phil with the odd shaped head still plays SSF2T despite being trash at it. IMO he's still trying to capture the glory of his best years mopping up scurbs; but get someone with equal/greater skill or a real killer, bodied all day. Now he has won qualifiers and beaten some notable players but when it comes to the actual big tournaments, still bodied all day.
I could talk about his various hangups/weaknesses when playing fighting games but today lets talk about one.... "pattern play". You see Phil(especially when it comes to SSFT2) loves to play in a very predictable pattern, especially when it comes to certain characters. He'll pick maybe one or two characters, learn one or two combos then abuse said combos to holy hell i.e. play in a very predictable loop or "pattern". Its one of the reasons why he gets cleaned up; anybody with rational thought, fundamental understanding of the game mechanics/characters can see the pattern, adapt, outthink and outplay him. If you want some examples check out SSFT2, SF3TS, MVC2, MVCI, T7, GBSV, etc, etc. When I think about it some of the best salt comes from him playing fighting games...