Why Twitch Removed The PogChamp Emote (& What It Was)

PogChamp, one of gaming’s most famed slack-jawed emotes and expressions, was permanently removed from live streaming platform Twitch, where it was popularized online. Twitch announced it would be ridding its endlessly scrolling chatrooms of the icon on January 6 after the face of the emote, fighting-game personality Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez, took to Twitter to incite more violence in the wake of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the United States Capitol that same day.

Hours after Guiterrez’s statements on social media, Twitch responded on Twitter by banning the PogChamp emote across the website. The company stated it could not “in good conscience continue to enable use of the image” after Guiterrez’s incendiary remarks. That marked the end of one of Twitch’s oldest emotes, but the expression has become such an intrinsic part of Twitch and gaming culture that its legacy will live on completely detached from any hateful vitriol.

Before its removal, PogChamp had been used on Twitch over 813 million times according to global data collected by StreamElements. The emote has been used in every major social media platform in either its plain text form or as a reaction image for years, and edits of the original image have been made into countless other emotes and memes. PogChamp had long transcended its origin and Twitch stated on Twitter that it was committed to working with its community to “design a new emote” that will take the place of its first iteration. So what exactly does PogChamp mean and how did it become a Twitch mainstay?

What Does PogChamp Mean?

PogChamp was an emote used to celebrate a moment of excitement created when a streamer accomplishes something while they’re broadcasting. It could be a clutch play that wins them the round in a competitive game or something as lucky as finding an extremely rare Pokémon card. The emote was a way to express enthusiasm and disbelief at what had just unfolded on stream. PogChamp was also used sarcastically to make fun of boring or mundane moments.

The spelling of the emote is very similar to the acronym for “Play Of The Game,” which is a feature in games like Overwatch that highlights the most epic moment of any given match, but its origin story isn’t quite that straightforward. PogChamp was actually inspired by the 1990s collectible milk caps, Pogs.

The Origin of PogChamp

The image itself stems from a 2010 Cross Counter TV video of outtakes where Gutierrez reacts to an incident that occurred off-camera while he’s sitting next to streamer Mike Ross. A crop of his face began circulating the internet but it wasn’t until 2011 that the reaction received its now-iconic moniker.

Gutierrez and Ross reconvened for another Cross Counter TV video, this time to promote an arcade joystick. The sponsored clip features the two playing with Pogs and ends with Gutierrez looking straight into the camera and saying “Pog Champions.” The expression slowly became linked to Gutierrez’s face, which led Twitch to add it to its roster of global emotes in 2012 and the rest is internet history.

The Future of PogChamp

PogChamp has since been a staple in gamer slang, but its once wholesome origin story took a dark turn on January 6 when it became clear that Gutierrez holds many dangerous extremist beliefs. Content creator Natasha “Zombaekillz” Zinda was one of the first people in the Twitch community to call for the removal of PogChamp, which the platform swiftly obliged.

Since then dozens of Twitch streamers and content creators have stepped forward on social media asking Twitch to use their faces of disbelief as the new PogChamp. The platform has yet to announce whether it’s planning on using a different crop or if it will work with its partners to draft a whole new design for the emote. Either way, this isn’t the death of PogChamp, it’s simply a new chapter.

Sources: StreamElements, Twitch/Twitter, Zombaekillz/Twitter