Twitch announces new PogChamp emote plan after suggestion goes viral

Twitch has revealed a new plan for the platform’s iconic PogChamp emote after briefly removing it due to comments made by its “face” Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez.

On January 6, the Amazon-owned streaming site announced it would be removing the emote, but claimed that they still wanted it to “live on” due to its important place in Twitch culture.

After stating they would work with the community to find solutions, many ideas starting pouring in such as using the late content creator Etika.

However, the one suggestion that received the most attention came from veteran streamer Day9, who remarked that Twitch “create a database of streamer and/or general faces.”

“Whenever someone types PogChamp, display one of those faces at random. Would give a really nice crowd feel to a chat spamming PogChamp and allow the meaning to be tied to all of us instead,” the streamer added.

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After the idea gained support from other big names such as Pokimane and Greekgodx, Twitch decided to implement it.

“You know what? In the spirit of figuring out 2021 together, let’s just roll with it for now!” the platform announced on January 8. “Get ready for a new PogChamp every 24 hours, starting today.”

Now, when users type “PogChamp” into Twitch chat, a different streamer’s face will pop up showing the same iconic reaction that the original had.

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The first person to have their face as the new emote is fighting game streamer ‘unrooolie’ who personally made a pitch to Twitch shortly after they removed it.

“Dear Twitch, I would like to throw my name in the hat for the replacement of Pogchamp,” he wrote and attached an image that the platform ended up using.

Currently, the site hasn’t given other streamers the option to submit their own PogChamp photos for emotes, nor have they determined how long the 24 hour solution will last for. In any case, expect to see a new one every day until a permanent plan is in place.

That said, for users still looking to use the original emote, not all platforms have banned it. Notably, the popular Twitch extension BetterTTV (BTTV) stated they have “never removed emotes due to controversies, and likely won’t as a result of this behavior” and that users have the choice to use their platform or not.

It will be interesting to see how long Twitch’s plan lasts and what other streamers will be featured in the future.