It is the end of an era in Twitch Gaming History. On the 6th of January 2021, the PogChamp Twitch emote was removed from the site. This emoticon was highly regarded among the Twitch fan base and one could argue that it was even embedded into the very lore of the Twitch.TV website. In order to gain a further understanding into why Pog was such an impactful phrase, look at my other published article on this site titled “Pog: A Study in Colloquialisms”. For those of you who understand the connotations behind the phrase, read on to discover why it was removed.

Many people by know will know that the emote itself is a caricature of the streamer known as Ryan Gutierrez. Although this man is the face of the Pog emote, he was by no means the impact behind the phrase. Ryan recorded himself publicly condoning the ghastly riots that took place at the Capitol Building, even going so far as to state that the violence had ended too soon and was encouraging further conflict. Although most people were unaware of who the face behind Pog really was, it was still Ryan’s likeness that was displayed whenever the emote was used. Twitch was unable to disregard Ryan’s statements and refused to be complicit in the advertisement of someone with such bigoted thoughts. For this reason, it was removed from the site. Although the reasons behind the removal were logical, it was still a huge part of Twitch culture. While we will not miss the man behind Pog, we will miss the essence of it.