Earlier this week, Twitch made the decision to remove the PogChamp emoticon from its platform after the person on whose face it was based made inflammatory comments about the violent riots at the U.S. Capitol. Referring to the impacted face emot has become a staple in both Twitch and gaming circles more generally, so they didn’t want to leave the PogChamp spirit for good. For now, they have decided to “roll in” and replace the emot with a new face of surprise every 24 hours.
Apparently Twitch liked it the suggestion proposed by Sean “Day9” Plot to create a group of impacted emoticons and choose a random one each time the PogChamp emoticon is used. They haven’t done exactly that, but they’re expensive crowdsourcing.
“In the spirit of finding out 2021 together,” they say, Twitch will have a brilliant new global PogChamp every 24 hours. First, the new PogChamp seems to be Kenny “UnRooolie” McWild he raised his face upwards for consideration as a possible replacement. Of course, there is one a lot of other serpentines throwing their own faces Pogs in response to the Twitch ad.
At least for now, apparently, we will be treated every day with a new face of shock and fear. I can’t imagine Twitch maintaining this strategy indefinitely, but it will give them time to come up with a more permanent solution, either a set of possible PogChamps or a new standard Pog for everyone. Earlier, Twitch said they wanted to “work with the community to design a new emoticon for Twitch’s most advertising moments.”
Until tomorrow, Unrooolie is your PogChamp of your choice.