Earlier this week, Twitch made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote from their platform after the person whose face it was based made on incendiary comments about the violent riots in the Capitol. Referencing the shocked face emote has become a staple both on Twitch and in gaming circles in general, so they didn’t want to leave the ghost of PogChamp for good. For now, they’ve decided to “roll with it” and replace the emote with a new surprise face every 24 hours.
Twitch apparently liked it the suggestion put forward by Sean “Day9” Plott of creating a pool of shocked face emotes and picking one at random each time the PogChamp emote is used. They haven’t exactly done that, but they are crowdsourcing faces.
“In the spirit of figuring out 2021 together,” they say, Twitch will have a shiny new global PogChamp every 24 hours. First up as the new PogChamp, Kenny appears to be “UnRooolie” McWild threw his face up for consideration as a possible replacement. Of course there are a lot of from other streamers pitch their own faces as possible Pogs in response to Twitch’s announcement.
For the time being, we will apparently be treated to a new face of shock and awe every day. I can’t imagine Twitch keeping that strategy indefinitely, but it gives them time to come up with a more permanent solution, whether that’s a pool of possible PogChamps or a new default Pog for everyone. Earlier, Twitch said they wanted to “work with the community to design a new emote for the hype moments on Twitch.”
Until tomorrow Unrooolie is your PogChamp par excellence.