Around 2008, a stock photo of a passionate Komodo dragon hit the internet. More than a decade later, that lizard has become the new face of Twitch’s PogChamp emote. Here’s the story of KomodoHype.
The Komodo dragon is a unique lizard species native to the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores and Gili Motang. Growing up to a maximum height of 10 feet and 150 pounds, the lizards are absolute beasts, preying on everything from unsuspecting birds to… horses.
While it is widely speculated that the Komodo dragon possesses poisonous saliva capable of turning larger mammals upside down, that research is disputed. What cannot be disputed, however, is that a seemingly smiling Komodo known as KomodoHype has been officially infected and has spread through Twitch.
Just a month of experimentation after the platform removed the original PogChamp emote, KomodoHype has been crowned its permanent successor. Based on a stock photo from circa 2008, the cropped lizard emote has emerged and is now here to stay.
The origin of KomodoHype
THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISE pic.twitter.com/UveQ3mXr0L
– slweeb 🪱 (@slweeb) January 7, 2021
According to KnowYourMemeThe original stock photo of the Komodo dragon was shared around 2008 on the now-defunct Daqi website. In the years since, the possibly smiling, possibly surprised, undoubtedly hype lizard has been photoshopped and edited in DeviantArt and Reddit, among others.
A decade later, in 2018, KomodoHype – a cropped, face-focused emote of the original stock – began circulating on Twitch. While it didn’t gain enough traction to become public knowledge, that all changed in January 2021 when the removal of PogChamp opened a vacuum for a non-problematic emote of similar energy. KomodoHype quickly grew cult following, as streamer communities (such as xQCs) promoted the charismatic reptile.
After weeks of daily changes to the PogChamp emote based on community submissions, Twitch has finally made it a match “PogChampening” to determine the winner. By reducing the options to 35, KomodoHype was crowned true lizard king and Pog champion on February 12.
As the prophecy foretold, Komodo is Hype @Zenuwtrekkingis new #PogChamp pic.twitter.com/aa2jOPXwaW
– DEXERTO.COM (@Dexerto) February 12, 2021
What happened to the original PogChamp?
As for the original PogChamp emote, which was based on Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez, it was removed from Twitch in January 2021 following some comments from Gutierrez about the US Capitol storming.
Twitch decided that the inspiration of the original emote “encouraged further violence” due to some tweets about the day’s events and completely removed his face from the platform.
Now Gutierrez finally has a successor. And with lizards lacking the opposable thumbs required for Twitter, KomodoHype seems destined for a lifetime rule like Twitch’s new PogChamp.