Earlier this week, Twitch made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote from his platform after the person whose face was based on fiery comments about the violent riots at the U.S. Capitol. Referencing the shocked-faced emote has become something of a staple in both Twitch and gaming circles in general, so they didn’t want to let PogChamp’s spirit go forever. For now, they decided to “roll with it” and replace the emote with a new surprise face every 24 hours.
Twitch apparently liked the suggestion suggested by Sean “Day9” Plott to create a pool of shocked face emotes and have a random one chosen each time the PogChamp emote is used. They didn’t do just that, but they are crowdsourcing faces.
“In the spirit of discovering 2021 together,” they say, Twitch will have a brilliant new global PogChamp every 24 hours. The first as the new PogChamp seems to be Kenny “UnRooolie” McWild who threw his face up for consideration as a possible replacement. Of course, there is a very other streamers casting their own faces as possible Pogs in response to the Twitch announcement.
For now, at least, we will apparently be treated with a new face of shock and admiration every day. I can’t imagine Twitch maintaining this strategy indefinitely, but it will give them time to come up with a more permanent solution, be it a pool of possible PogChamps or a new standard Pog for everyone. Previously, Twitch said he wanted to “work with the community to create a new emote for the hottest moments on Twitch”.
Until tomorrow, Unrooolie is your favorite PogChamp.