PogChamp Meaning – why it was removed from Twitch?

What is a PogChamp? The internet is overflowing with its own slang. While spending the time on Twitch, you have undoubtedly come across the PogChamp emoji at least once. What is it and where does it come from? 

PogChamp meaning – what does PogChamp mean?

What is PogChamp? The word Pogchamp comes from a combination of two other words – the abbreviation POG (Play of Game) and Champ (meaning champion).

The PogChamp emoji appeared online in 2012 – two years after Gootecks, a popular streamer and youtuber, posted a video on YouTube showing his surprised facial expression. Excitement, surprise, or unbelief are emotions that the emoticon with the streamer’s characteristic facial grimace expressed on Twitch for many years.

Related: Facebook emoticons – how to add them and what do they mean?

Over the years, PogChamp has been used both as an emoticon and a phrase, and as a result, it has permanently entered Internet slang, known not only among Twitch users. It also became the most commonly used emoticon on that platform. However, after many years, the creators decided to remove it. What happened and what did the titular PogChamp guy that made Twitch to remove his emoji from their platform? 

Who is the PogChamp guy? Meet Ryan „Gootecks” Gutierrez

Ryan Gutierrez is a youtuber and streamer who plays Street Fighter, known by his nickname Gootecks. It’s his surprised face that has become one of the most used emoticons on Twitch and one of the biggest memes of the internet era.

The best is that Guttierez himself was unaware for some time that his reaction shown in the YouTube video had become so popular among users of streaming platforms. It must have been quite a shock when he discovered that. Right?

PogChamp emoji gained its greatest popularity on Twitch, a site where streamers from around the world can be found playing games and chatting with viewers, so video games themselves became the most common context for the emoticon and the phrase PogChamp. Among other things, the emoticon was used when a streamer made an impressive or surprising action during a game.

For over a decade, gamers around the world used PogChamp, assimilating the phrase into their language and using it in an increasingly broader sense. Despite its immense popularity and recognition, Twitch removed the emoticon in early 2021 due to Gootecks’ comments on issues that were occupying the entire United States at the time.

Why is PogChamp removed from Twitch?

On January 6, 2021, the events known as the Capitol attack took place. The attack was prompted by supporters of then-President Donald Trump who were unhappy that his seat was being taken by Joe Biden

Protesters broke into the headquarters of the United States Congress, destroying and looting the building. The attack resulted in as many as 5 deaths and 138 injuries, which was met with reaction from people around the world. Social media was in an uproar during this time.

Twitter is probably the most common platform if it comes to spreading the news like The Capitol Attack, and it was there that Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez posted his comment on this particular event. 

His statement was seen as encouraging further violence, to which not only Twitter reacted, but also Twitch, which featured an emoticon with his face. In a very short time, the platform issued a statement that the emoticon would be removed due to the previously mentioned events.

However, there’s no denying that the PogChamp itself has become iconic in the slang of internet users, and for many it was hard to abandon its use. So Twitch started an initiative that involved changing the emoticon that would temporarily replace PogChamp on a daily basis. For a while, fans could use the face of another popular streamer. However, it turned out that users of the platform did not welcome the change.

There were also calls to bring back the old PogChamp, which Twitch could not agree to. In order to avoid further discussions and to close the issue, it was decided to present a new permanent emoticon that would forever replace the Gootecks face from years ago.

It was chosen by Twitch users themselves, for whom a special poll was prepared to choose a new PogChamp. With a huge majority of votes (as many as 81%) the existing emoticon KomodoHype showing a surprised warrior from Komodo won the vote.