Twitch removed its popular PogChamp emote a couple of days ago after the person on which it was based Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez posted some tweets encouraging more mob violence after the riot at the Capitol. The spirit of PogChamp, however, will live on: today, Twitch announced that it would cycle through different versions of the emote every 24 hours, starting today.
Soon after PogChamp vanished from the platform, Sean “Day9″ Plott, a well-known StarCraft II player and commentator, suggested using an image of a random Twitch community member anytime someone used the emote. His tweet racked up more than 84,000 likes and Twitch agreed it was a solid idea. “You know what? In the spirit of figuring out 2021 together, let’s just roll with it for now!” Twitch wrote. “Get ready for a new Pogchamp every 24 hours, starting today.”
The first streamer to get the PogChamp spotlight is fighting game player Kenny “UnRoolie” McWild, as Kotaku notes. As such, it seems Twitch will use PogChamp to highlight its community members.
Twitch removed PogChamp earlier this week after the original face of the emote, Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez, called for further “civil unrest” following the death of a woman during violent protests on Capitol Hill. “We want the sentiment and use of Pog to live on its meaning is much bigger than the person depicted or image itself and it has a big place in Twitch culture,” Twitch wrote at the time. “However, we can’t in good conscience continue to enable use of the image.”
