Twitch has figured out how they're going to replace their well-known PogChamp emote. Twitch viewers will be seeing a new face represent the emote every 24 hours for the rest of the year.
Earlier this week, Twitch officially cut ties with fighting game personality Ryan "Gooteks" Gutierrez after he posted a tweet encouraging further violence after Wednesday's raid, where pro-Trump rioters, motivated by his baseless claims of electoral fraud, stormed the Capitol building. Gutierrez's tweet asked if there would be civil unrest for the "#MAGAMartyr," referring to a woman who was shot and killed by law enforcement during the riot. In response, Twitch spoke up and said that despite PogChamp's part in Twitch culture, they couldn't "in good conscience continue to enable use of the image."
You know what? In the spirit of figuring out 2021 together, let’s just roll with it for now!
— Twitch (@Twitch) January 8, 2021
Get ready for a new PogChamp every 24 hours, starting today. https://t.co/R16EyASsFx
In the short time PogChamp was removed, plenty of people threw out their suggestions for what to replace it with. Around noon, Twitch sent out a tweet announcing that they would be adopting an idea originally suggested by long-time gaming personality Sean "Day9" Plott, where they would rotate new variations of the PogChamp emote every 24 hours. Today's version features fighting game expert Kenny "UnRoolie" Wild, who offered up his own face to be a replacement during the emote's disappearance.
It's worth noting that there are add-ons for Twitch that allow certain custom emotes to show up on a streamer's on-screen chat window. Esports consultant Rod "Slasher" Breslau reports that FrankerFaceZ is removing all variations of PogChamp emotes from their service. Meanwhile, Rod reports that BetterTTV won't be removing any emotes. BTTV Leader Night said that "in general, BetterTTV has never removed emotes due to controversies, and likely won't as a result of this behavior. Users have the ability of choice on our platform." BetterTTV is one of the few add-ons that feature emotes like Poggers, which represents the controversial character Pepe the Frog.
