While the famous PogChamp emote in its original expression will be gone from Twitch, the streaming platform has announced that it will change on a regular basis to preserve it in some form.
Earlier this week, Twitch made the move to remove the classic PogChamp emote. The huge decision was made following the face of the image, Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez, making inflammatory comments on Twitter related to the recent events at the US Capitol.
With a core part of Twitch’s identity now gone, it appears that the streaming platform understands that it could be losing too much, having unveiled an ambitious plan to maintain it in some fashion.
Today, Twitch announced via Twitter that it will use different versions of the emote every 24 hours. Though the identity and appearance of each PogChamp is different, the essence of a person with their mouth wide open in surprise remains the same.
The idea was suggested to Twitch by gaming personality Sean “Day[9]” Plott shortly after the original PogChamp was removed. Whether this will result in a permanent decision on the new PogChamp’s identity is yet to be seen, though this Poggers move will allow the community to voice their opinion on the matter.
As revealed by Kotaku, the first streamer to become the new PogChamp will be fighting game player Kenny “UnRooolie” McWild. In response to the news, UnRooolie seemed a little nonchalant about it.
You know what? In the spirit of figuring out 2021 together, let’s just roll with it for now!
Get ready for a new PogChamp every 24 hours, starting today. https://t.co/R16EyASsFx
— Twitch (@Twitch) January 8, 2021
Hey so uh anything cool happen?
— Kenny McWild❼ (@unrooolie) January 8, 2021
For now, this move appears to be a step in the right direction in highlighting the diverse range of streamers hosted on the platform. While this is still uncharted territory with no sure idea of what can happen, Twitch have very much decided to embrace what 2021 has been about so far in just rolling with it.
It appears that after several years where the controversies kept multiplying, Twitch is making considerable changes to its platform. Last month, the Amazon subsidiary announced that it will ban the words ‘simp’, ‘incel’, and ‘virgin’ from being used in insulting contexts. The streaming service is also attempting to clarify its music copyright rules following an influx of DMCA notices last year.
