Pogchamp

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PogChamp was a Twitch emote showing the shocked face of Street Fighter player Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez, spammed in chat to express hype or surprise. Added to Twitch's global emote set in 2012, it was removed in January 2021 after Gutierrez posted comments about the January 6th Capitol storming.

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Overview

PogChamp was a global Twitch emote built from a still frame of Street Fighter player Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez with his mouth and eyes stretched wide in shock2. Chat users typed PogChamp to react to clutch plays, dramatic moments, or big reveals during a stream, and often spammed it dozens of times in a row when hype spiked3.

The emote also worked sarcastically, sent in response to a streamer choking, dying to a low-tier enemy, or otherwise flopping in an unremarkable moment3. By January 2020, PogChamp was sent an average of over 500,000 times a day across Twitch, with occasional spikes above one million uses3. The name traces back to "Pogs Championship," a gameshow-style bit Gutierrez used to host built around the 90s Pog craze4.

How It Spread

The first r/Twitch post explaining the term was written by u/ThatSchmoDude42 on January 3, 2016, linking back to the original Cross Counter TV clip3. On May 26, 2017, theScore esports uploaded a mini-documentary on the emote's history that pulled in more than 663,000 views on YouTube3.

Derivative emotes stacked up over the next few years. POGGERS, a Pepe the Frog version with the same wide-mouthed look, was submitted through BetterTTV on February 23, 2017 and eventually ran on more than 160,000 Twitch channels3. PogU, using a different still from the same 2010 video, was uploaded to FrankerFaceZ by user Amiccuz on June 3, 20183. The catchphrase "My Little PogChamp" started with a Facebook post from the page Smol on September 24, 2020, paired with Kill la Kill fan art3.

On January 6, 2021, Twitch announced on Twitter that it was pulling the PogChamp emote after Gutierrez tweeted about the woman shot and killed by police during the storming of the US Capitol. Twitch said his statements were "encouraging further violence" and were incompatible with keeping his face as a global emote1. Third-party POGGERS and PogU emotes stayed available through BetterTTV and FrankerFaceZ, which is why the wider "pog" vocabulary survived the ban3.

How to Use This Meme

Typing PogChamp (or later POGGERS and PogU) in Twitch chat during a hype beat is the standard use, often mashed rapidly by many viewers at once to flood the chat. Common convention is to fire it off for clutch plays, jump-scares, unexpected wins, or big announcements, and to use it dryly when a streamer whiffs something trivial. Outside Twitch, people still write "pog" or "poggers" in DMs, Discord, and comment sections to signal genuine or ironic excitement5.

Frequently Asked Questions

Pogchamp

2010image macroclassic

PogChamp was a Twitch emote showing the shocked face of Street Fighter player Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez, spammed in chat to express hype or surprise. Added to Twitch's global emote set in 2012, it was removed in January 2021 after Gutierrez posted comments about the January 6th Capitol storming.

twitch emotes reaction memes facial expression memes gaming streamer memes

Overview

PogChamp was a global Twitch emote built from a still frame of Street Fighter player Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez with his mouth and eyes stretched wide in shock2. Chat users typed PogChamp to react to clutch plays, dramatic moments, or big reveals during a stream, and often spammed it dozens of times in a row when hype spiked3.

The emote also worked sarcastically, sent in response to a streamer choking, dying to a low-tier enemy, or otherwise flopping in an unremarkable moment3. By January 2020, PogChamp was sent an average of over 500,000 times a day across Twitch, with occasional spikes above one million uses3. The name traces back to "Pogs Championship," a gameshow-style bit Gutierrez used to host built around the 90s Pog craze4.

How It Spread

The first r/Twitch post explaining the term was written by u/ThatSchmoDude42 on January 3, 2016, linking back to the original Cross Counter TV clip3. On May 26, 2017, theScore esports uploaded a mini-documentary on the emote's history that pulled in more than 663,000 views on YouTube3.

Derivative emotes stacked up over the next few years. POGGERS, a Pepe the Frog version with the same wide-mouthed look, was submitted through BetterTTV on February 23, 2017 and eventually ran on more than 160,000 Twitch channels3. PogU, using a different still from the same 2010 video, was uploaded to FrankerFaceZ by user Amiccuz on June 3, 20183. The catchphrase "My Little PogChamp" started with a Facebook post from the page Smol on September 24, 2020, paired with Kill la Kill fan art3.

On January 6, 2021, Twitch announced on Twitter that it was pulling the PogChamp emote after Gutierrez tweeted about the woman shot and killed by police during the storming of the US Capitol. Twitch said his statements were "encouraging further violence" and were incompatible with keeping his face as a global emote1. Third-party POGGERS and PogU emotes stayed available through BetterTTV and FrankerFaceZ, which is why the wider "pog" vocabulary survived the ban3.

How to Use This Meme

Typing PogChamp (or later POGGERS and PogU) in Twitch chat during a hype beat is the standard use, often mashed rapidly by many viewers at once to flood the chat. Common convention is to fire it off for clutch plays, jump-scares, unexpected wins, or big announcements, and to use it dryly when a streamer whiffs something trivial. Outside Twitch, people still write "pog" or "poggers" in DMs, Discord, and comment sections to signal genuine or ironic excitement5.

Frequently Asked Questions