Cartoon green orc head with tusks and angry expression, the SMOrc Twitch emote

SMOrc

2013emoteclassic

Published October 15, 2026

SMOrc, short for Space Marine Orc, is a Twitch emote taken from the 2011 shooter Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine that Hearthstone viewers adopted in 2015 to mock aggressive, hero-targeting plays. The green Ork face escaped card games after DJ KARL THE DOG's 'SMOrc Song' hit over 6 million views on YouTube, and by 2020 Twitch chats were firing it roughly 600,000 times a day as all-caps spam.

twitch emotes twitch chat memes gaming card game memes catchphrase memes

Overview

On Twitch, SMOrc pastes travel with all-caps shouts of 'WAAAAGH,' 'FACE IS THE PLACE,' and 'FACE NEVER TRADE,' chat slogans that back the Ork's single-minded aggression6. In Hearthstone, 'face' means the opposing hero, so viewers unload the emote whenever a streamer rushes the enemy's health instead of trading minions on the board5. Hunter mains draw the most SMOrc smiles, since the class's cheap damage spells reward exactly that gameplan.

Outside Hearthstone, viewers aim the Ork face at streamers themselves. Entire chats spam SMOrc as a mock threat when a broadcaster ignores demands or picks a slow-paced match6. The sentiment moved from calling out aggressive card play to acting as a cartoon riot icon that chats fire during any slight3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitch (global emote) / Hearthstone chat (viral spread)
Date
2013

The Ork face comes from Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, a 2011 third-person shooter where the player's Ultramarine squad fights waves of green Orks. Twitch and Justin.tv folded the character art into their global emote set in early 2013, which is when the shortcode SMOrc first appeared in chats3.

The earliest documented use sits in a SpeedDemosArchive chat log from January 12, 2013, where user pluffen posted SMOrc after a successful speedrun by the streamer1. A collage of Twitch and Justin.tv faces published on Exzacklyright.com on March 25, 2013 also catches SMOrc among the fresh global emotes8.

How It Spread

4chan's Traditional Games board shows an early community-level burst on October 17, 2014, where an anonymous poster spammed SMOrc under a stream announcement, mixed with Warhammer Ork imagery and the race's 'WAAAAGH' battle cry9. The emote only hit mass popularity after Hearthstone's chat scene adopted it in 2015 to flag Hunter decks and other burn-the-hero strategies4.

That year, YouTuber DJ KARL THE DOG posted 'SMOrc SONG, Face Never Trade,' a remix of E-40's 'Choices (Yup)' set to Hearthstone footage, which eventually counted more than 6 million views and over 81,000 upvotes2. A follow-up remix of Dr. Dre's 'The Next Episode,' titled 'The Face Episode (SMOrc SONG VO.2),' hit the channel a month later, with 'face never trade' and 'face is the place' circulating as stock Twitch phrases3.

By January 2020, SMOrc counted about 600,000 Twitch uses per day according to the analytics tracker twitchemotes.com, with the Ork face printed on mugs, shirts, and fan merch far outside the Hearthstone scene7.

Timeline

2011

THQ releases Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, the game whose Ork portrait later becomes the SMOrc emote.

2013-01-12

SpeedDemosArchive log captures chat user pluffen posting SMOrc after a Justin.tv speedrun, the earliest documented chat use.

2013-03-25

Exzacklyright.com publishes a collage of new Twitch and Justin.tv faces that includes SMOrc.

2014-10-17

An anonymous 4chan /tg/ poster spams SMOrc under a stream announcement, alongside Warhammer Ork art and WAAAAGH references.

2015

DJ KARL THE DOG uploads 'SMOrc SONG, Face Never Trade' on YouTube; the Hearthstone remix of E-40's 'Choices (Yup)' passes 6 million views.

2015

DJ KARL THE DOG follows up with 'The Face Episode (SMOrc SONG VO.2),' a Dr. Dre 'The Next Episode' remix.

2020-01

Twitchemotes reports roughly 600,000 SMOrc uses per day across the platform.

How to Use This Meme

Viewers typically paste the SMOrc emote alongside all-caps shouts like 'WAAAAGH,' 'FACE IS THE PLACE,' or 'FACE NEVER TRADE' when a streamer goes for a kill shot or ignores chat demands6. Common convention in Hearthstone streams is to flood chat with the emote when the broadcaster plays Hunter or any aggressive deck that targets the enemy hero's health5.

Frequently Asked Questions