KomodoHype officially wins PogChampening & becomes new Twitch PogChamp emote

Alan Bernal
twitch pogchamp the pogchampening

Twitch audiences decided “the future of PogChamp” on February 12, inducting KomodoHype as the new face for the iconic emote that’s been in the making for over a month.

The company announced on their Twitter account that it will let people cast their vote to the 30+ submissions and concepts that have been put under consideration so far.

Throughout the month of January, Twitch users site-wide have had the chance to use every new emote idea. Some of them have been great while others didn’t quite land the mark for the ‘hype’ that the PogChamp emote embodies.

Regardless, Twitch gave a final say to their audience who got to “decide what the future of hype looks like” when the PogChampening finalized on February 12. And that streaming community has chosen a Komodo dragon as the rightful heir to the throne.

KomodoHype pogchamp twitch
There’s been plenty of entrants to replace Twitch’s famed PogChamp.

KomodoHype: Winner of The PogChampening

After the contest culminated, one champion stood alone atop the mountaintops of Twitch hype: an impassioned lizard known as KomodoHype. Based off of a stock photo that began circulating around the internet in 2008, KomodoHype became a Twitch emote in 2018 and, years later, has now succeeded Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez as the face of Twitch hype.

In nature, the Komodo dragon is a terrifying, predatory sight. On Twitch, the surprised, vivacious face of the lizard is now a sight for celebration.

PogChamp emote entries: Myth, TheGrefg, more

There were a ton of options to choose from. There’s been quite a few highlights to the PogChamp reel so far including those featuring images of TheGrefg, CriticalBard, and more.

For people who are hazy on past contestants, Twitch’s sizzle reel features a couple dozen of the options that audiences were able to vote on.

Some of the more popular ones during the trial phase were ones that don’t feature a person at all, like the unbeatable KomodoHype emote.

Streamers tried boosting their own PogChamp emotes as much as possible to try and become the new face of the platform, but none could be more effective than a lizard without any social media accounts.

TSM’s Ali ‘Myth’ Kabbani rallied his audience to vote for him, as victory “would literally be a dream come true.” Unfortunately, a lizard’s dream proved more powerful.

The one true PogChamp was revealed as Twitch put it to a vote for the matter to finally be settled and reptilian fans everywhere rejoiced.

The original PogChamp, modeled by Gootecks, was removed from the platform in January after the creator reportedly “encouraged violence” on social media.

Gutierrez disputed Twitch’s removal of the emote, claiming the platform “seems to have decision making super powers.”