Representation and Global Esports Games with The4Philzz

After a very eventful 2021 for Street Fighter V player Kim-Philippe ‘The4Philzz’ Badiabio, the future is looking bright for them.

We caught up with Kim-Philippe, and discussed his early career development, the Global Esports Games 2021, and the representation of ethnic minorities in the esports industry. 

Where did it all begin?

Although Kim-Philippe hasn’t had a long competitive career, he has put his name on the competitive map over the last few years – establishing himself as a strong British player in the Street Fighter V scene.

But, gaming has always been a passion of The4Philzz’s, and that fuelled the fire for him to get started in competing.

He said: “I have loved gaming since as far as I can remember, and fighting games have always been a part of my life from a very young age. A little over 3 years ago, I decided to go to my very first offline local tournament for Street Fighter V, and that was my introduction to the fighting game community.

After seeing that I was able to compete against the best players in my region, I was able to make a name for myself.”

From here, Kim-Philippe has been able to play in a variety of tournaments, and put himself forward as one of the best British players in the Street Fighter community.

Most memorable moment:

Having been involved in so many different events and tournaments, it is hard for The4Philzz to determine his best moments so far, as all of them are incredible.

However, one event stood out the most for him – “My most memorable moment has to be the CPT (Capcom Pro Tour) UK/IRELAND tournament. I got 1st place and this was the biggest tournament of the year in my region.

Getting 1st place meant that I had earned a qualification spot for the Capcom Cup at the end of that season, but unfortunately that event was cancelled,” Kim explained.

Not only did The4Philzz take the win in the 2021 CPT tournament, he also took home the victory in the 2022 event this week – knocking down Problem-X to come away with the prize. 

The journey to the 2021 Global Esports Games:

Shortly after his victory in the CPT event last year, Kim-Philippe was given the opportunity to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the inaugural Global Esports Games in Singapore. But first, he had to get through the qualifiers.

The4Philzz fought through an 8-player closed qualifier stage, and managed to come out on top – even beating ex-Fnatic player Shakz to make it onto the squad heading to Singapore.

He explained: “It was an amazing feeling overall to qualify, as the qualification tournament took place very shortly after I had just won my CPT 2021 event. After qualifying for the Global Esports Games I was a bit nervous initially, because travelling to Singapore with the team was my first time travelling by plane without family, and I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived – although I was also very excited.”

The nerves quickly turned into pride upon landing in Singapore in December, as reality set in that he was among the best of the best from around the globe.

“When we got there, the venue was beautiful and the people were very nice, and I was treated very well throughout my time there. It was nice meeting all of the other representatives from different regions and talking about the game, and I was very surprised at the amount of people that were waiting to speak to me, take pictures, or even interview me at the venue. It was such a nice feeling,” he says.

Taking down RonaldinhoBR from Brazil, Kim-Philippe moved swiftly through matches, and it all came down to the battle for third place.

He explained: “My last match was against Amu_PS4 from Pakistan – a Seth player that I had not heard of until the tournament. I was a little nervous as to what to expect during the match because currently my region does not have many active Seth players who could be used as training partners. With that being said, I still had to go in confidently and do the best I could with the amount of preparation I had.”

Unfortunately, The4Philzz lost this match 3-1, but came out with the fourth place title which is an incredible achievement for the youngest player on the GB squad. 

Ethnic minority representation in esports:

Esports is an incredibly diverse industry, and allows for anyone from any background to get involved.

There are many individuals, organisations, and groups in the industry that actively work to showcase the works of ethnic minorities and represent them – including the likes of BlackGirlGamers, POC in Play, and Kim-Philippe himself.
Each individual has their own experiences, and The4Philzz has seen a positive avenue for ethnic minorities in the esports industry – especially in the fighting sector.

“Well I can only speak from my perspective at the moment which is within the fighting game community, but if we look around us there are a large number of people of colour who are champions, well known faces in the scene, have big platforms and are supported by sponsors. I believe everyone should be respected, however there are levels of respect that are earned through hard work, and I believe they have earned it.

I would like to see more venues available and dedicated to the esports gaming scene, where anyone can train, meet up, network and communicate more overall. After being indoors for so long due to the pandemic, I believe this is needed,” he explains. 

The future:

Following a year of exciting adventures and success for The4Philzz, the future looks very bright for his involvement in esports and gaming. However, he has decided to make a small change in his workload to ensure he stays on top form.

“I have recently decided to take a small step away from the competition side of esports and focus more on content creation. I will still be competing of course, however my priorities have changed a little bit, and I’ve decided to switch things up in order to benefit myself more in the long run,” he says.

Whilst he has stepped away from competing as much, Kim-Philippe will still be prominent in the industry and ready to inspire others to get involved.

He said: “When starting out, make sure to have fun! Understand that improvement does not happen overnight and it will take time, and that being frustrated is completely normal as a player. When you don’t get the results you want it’s very hard to deal with, so the important thing is that you stay on task and come up with solutions even through the stress. Ask for help, don’t be shy.

If you have people around you who are more knowledgeable than you in a certain area, make sure you ask them for help, and even if you happen to get turned down, don’t give up. My final piece of advice would be to make sure to play consistently. A huge part of games is about muscle memory, so you have to get used to doing things without thinking too hard about it. That’s how the pros make it look so easy to some, they play the game, A LOT.”

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We also spoke to The4Philzz last year during his time at the Global Esports Games, and that video can be found here on the British Esports YouTube channel.

You can keep updated on what Kim-Philippe is up to on his Twitter, and follow his Twitch and YouTube channels to see him in action.

Are there other British players you think should be highlighted? Let us know on the British Esports Twitter, and we may speak to them in the future.