Memes, reaction images, and emoticons are a staple on the internet. Viral images have been sent around the internet and all around the world for years, since the dawn of the World Wide Web. Almost everyone has sent them. Whether that be to send a cute meme to your significant other reminding them that you’re thinking of them or sending a reaction image to a hilarious conversation you’re having with your best friend. Unfortunately, some of these fun and hilarious images can turn sour quite quickly. Memes, while often are used for good, can be used to instigate some serious issues especially political driven ones. The distortion of these particular images can change how an entire group of people. An example I’m going to talk about here is an image that has circulating the internet for a few years. It is called the “PogChamp” meme or reaction image. It started wholesomely, with the bright young face of Ryan Gutierrez showing real extreme excitement about a particular videogame. After some disturbing events and harsh, critical words spoken our friendly PogChamp meme has changed its game. It is now an image that for some, invokes feelings of anger and hurt. Others it still has its nostalgic charm and warm, excited feelings that it invokes. But why is there such an uproar on this random live streaming platform? Why did the removal of such a small almost meaningless picture cause such a ruckus, shaking the internet to its core?
Let’s start from the beginning. What is the Pogchamp emote on Twitch? What is Twitch.tv? Twitch is a live broadcasting platform. Jamie Woodock and Mark Johnson said this about Twitch compared to other social media websites “Twitch, providing live video broadcast content is no longer limited to major industrial-economic actors, but rather a possibility for a large portion of the “general public”. While Twitch shares some commonalities with other social media platforms, the ability to provide live televised content on this scale is unique to Twitch — video sharing site YouTube of course provides this ability for recorded video, but (despite its new liveservice) produces little live content” (Woodcock et al. 2019) People mostly play video games to share with fans. Many famous “lets players” or people who play video games broadcast their streams for their fans to enjoy. Speed runners, people who play a video game as fast as possible, broadcast to win awards, money, and all the fame that comes with being an internet sensation. There is not only video games. Many people stream to Twitch to talk with their fans, peers, and to meet new people. On Twitch, there is something called “emotes.” These emotes can be sent into chat and they are typically pictures, short videos like GIFS, and stills from movies, television shows, etc. There are literally thousands and more being added almost every day. So why are these emotes so powerful on the platform? These emotes can be used to expression many different emotions. Some can be used to express sadness when a live streamer fails a level in a video game. Some can be used to express excitement when a live streamer announces that they finally got onto their dream e-sports team.
The one emote that expressed the most excitement is the Pogchamp emote. Know your meme is quoted as saying about the PogChamp meme “PogChamp, also known as Pog Champion, is one of the oldest emotes on Twitch. The emote is used as a way to express excitement or surprise both genuinely or sarcastically. Typically, PogChamp is spammed during a stream when something exciting happens, such as pulling off a clutch kill or play, but the emote can also be used in a trolling fashion where there is no hype, like a streamer failing a challenge or being killed in a mundane setting.” This emote has evolved to different meanings all over the internet. For example, this word PogChamp is now used a term of endearment, like shown in the meme below called “My Little PogChamp” (Know Your Meme, (Insert My Little Pogchamp meme below”.
In order to fully understand the controversy behind this image, we must look at the back story and the origins of this meme. So, who is the PogChamp meme? Where did it originate from? The image of the PogChamp is a still from a video first seen in a Cross Counter TV video from 2010, which features an outtake of a streamer who is a famous Street Fighter player Ryan Gutierrez, whose screen name is Gootecks. He is making an exaggerated face with his mouth and eyes wide in surprise after the cameraman bumped into his tripod and shook the camera while recording. This video was then uploaded as an outtake. (Know Your Meme, 2012). According to Know Your Meme, “the image is rumored to have originally surfaced on the website 4chan before spreading elsewhere. The image was used on 4chan within the gaming community shortly after the 2011 “Pogs Championship” video was uploaded when users stripped stills of Gutierrez’s shocked face and began using these to express surprise or excitement throughout the website in a number of threads” (Know Your Meme, 2012). From there, the image of Ryan Gutierrez blew up. It’s been seen used on Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. It has been turned into multiple different memes, reaction images, and like mentioned before most noticeably the PogChamp emote on Twitch.
So why is Ryan Gutierrez a big deal? What makes the PogChamp emote so diversifying? In January of 2021, many people who disagreed with election results of Joseph Biden being the next President of the United States and claimed election fraud decided to storm Washington D.C. They had forced themselves in the capitol building to make their opinions known and stand in solidarity of Donald Trump. Ryan also shared these intense political views with his fellow peers and decided to tweet on the same day of the capitol storming. Those tweets, which are seen above, split the entire Twitch.tv platform down the middle. Those Tweets said “Will there be civil unrest for the woman who was executed inside the Capitol today or will the #MAGAMartyr die in vain?
The video will be aired soon on (banned dot video) & (theresistance dot video) and it sounds pretty gruesome ” Some replied to his tweets with positive reinforcement, saying that they supported his political views and that he is just using his right of freedom of speech. Many people did not stand with Ryan and completely disagreed with his opinions. Many thought Ryan, since he was in the public eye, should not have tweeted his political views especially views so politically dividing. Twitch had those same thoughts. They decided that Ryan’s views were a bit too polarizing but also his tweets enticed and condoned the violence that was happening at the capitol. Twitch did not want one of the biggest people and some say the face of the platform sharing such views. Seen below is Twitch’s tweets in response to Ryan’s.
Twitch’s next step was to rid the platform of the PogChamp emote. And the community took it two ways — some did not take that news well and others asked Twitch to take the PogChamp image down immediately. According to the website RT, “Some were less enthused about the decision, with one netizen observing that Twitch streamers who “support BLM and Antifa” have not faced similar repercussions, despite “past violent actions” by members of both organizations. Other users noted that the PogChamp emote was effectively “the face of Twitch,” questioning the move to permanently scrub it from the site.” (RT 2021) Some opposed to the thought of removing PogChamp from the platform said “Why did Twitch remove pogchamp just because his face typed some f*ckshit on Twitter? Freedom of speech. I’m not saying what he did was right, I’m trying to say they removed the face of Twitch. The most famous part of it all. I even got my mom to say poggers. Why, Twitch?” Others felt that is was necessary to complete remove the PogChamp image and emote. A Twitter user was noted to saying “Hey @Twitch can we f*cking remove PogChamp we don’t need it anymore, thanks” (RT 2021)
So why did Twitch feel the need to remove Ryan’s tweets? Twitch’s response to Ryan’s tweets explains it clear as day. Twitch tweeted out and said “We’ve made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol today. We want the sentiment and use of Pog to live on — its meaning is much bigger than the person depicted or image itself– and it has a big place in Twitch culture. However, we can’t in good conscience continue to enable use of the image” (RT 2021)
Because of the backlash and the political discourse that the PogChamp emote has created all over the interest especially Twitch, Twitch had to do something. They removed the face of Twitch. Twitch removed the image that people associated with that platform. PogChamp was a good, wholesome image that unfortunately due to circumstances had turned sour. And the people of Twitch were mad. They were upset. So Twitch decided that they would implement a new PogChamp emote! They used multiple ideas to try to subdue the rising anger that the live streamers and their viewers were feeling bubbling to the surface. Anna Diaz wrote a detailed article on Polygon about how Twitch would fix this rising issue. Diaz said “People responded with all kinds of ideas to replace the emote. In the end, Twitch settled on a rotating PogChamp — a new face each day — and then an election for a new, permanent one at the end. The PogChamp of the day was meant to celebrate the diversity of streamers on Twitch but ended up resulting in harassment for many streamers.” (Diaz 2021) Twitch loved the idea of implementing something that would raise awareness and share the diversity of the live streaming platforms users. While the idea was great and the thought that they put into showcasing their most famous and diverse streamers was wholesome, it did backfire. Unfortunately, there are bully’s and trolls who will harass many of these people showcased. Many of the broadcasters did in fact gain a lot of popularity and saw their stream’s stats sky rocket. But others did not get that privilege. Many streamers saw death threats due to some of Twitch’s audience strong feelings towards the original PogChamp emote, Ryan Guiterrez.
My opinion on the matter of the rotating face of Twitch is they used this for damage control. Twitch knew immediately that if they removed the PogChamp emote, that all hell would break loose. Many people identify PogChamp and Ryan Gutierrez’s excited face as THE face of Twitch. Twitch came out and said that they wanted to showcase different members of their community. Like I mentioned previously, there were mass amounts of harassment and unrest during the time of the removal of the PogChamp emote and the rotating PogChamp meme. Who else would know Twitch’s “troll” audience and how they would react? Twitch of course. They knew that there would be anger and upset in their community so trying to make this “right” in their audience’s eyes backfired. They implemented this system to try to control the damage that they knew would happen. And while this idea was great, they knew that it would not work out in the end. It led to more bullying and harassment for their live streamers.
Because Twitch did not want to be known for now two issues facing this certain emote, they took another approach. They decided to take the neutral route and change the face of PogChamp to something a little more cold blooded. They used an image of a lizard, a Komodo dragon whose new name is “KomodoHype”. Many people thought this idea was genius. It uses an innocent of a reptile who cannot cause any political discourse because it is a cold blooded reptile. Some think that it is even better than the original PogChamp emote showing Ryan Gutierrez reaction. Jay Peters, a writer for The Verge, said this in one of his articles “If you’ve hung out in Twitch chats, you may actually recognize this emote: it’s the beloved KomodoHype. And I can see why it won the community vote. While the original PogChamp was Twitch’s hype emote, I think this Komodo dragon’s face is even better at expressing hype, especially with its shockingly huge maw that somehow seems to be smiling.” This finally put to rest the insensitive comments about other streamers being the PogChamp and keeps harrasment and bullying at bay.
Why is this all so important? Why did this issue just not die when Twitch decided to remove Ryan Guiterrez as the face of the PogChamp? (May remove the last statement) Political discourse when it comes to memes is customary. Memes can be tweaked and shared with all sorts of different captions and images that can be changed by literally anyopne with internet access. The PogChamp meme is no different. For example, memes are the new political cartoons. Way back when, for example, political cartoons were popular. Many political cartoons were used to bring focus on a certain political issue or a point the artist is trying to make politically. Now since the days of the internet, we have other ways to make a political point or start a political discussion like memes for example. Memes are the new political cartoons. Twitch is supposed to be a platform for exciting things. Video games, announcements and just hanging out are the main priorities for Twitch. Having intense political conversations and do more harm than good. Having political conversations in a chat system that does not have anything to do with politics can be detrimental. For example, you have a streamer and his wife who play video games together. They announce their pregnancy. In the chat, the original PogChamp meme is shared in an innocent manner. The original meaning of the PogChamp emote is pure untamed excitement. This sparks a political debate in the chat. People start arguing over whether the PogChamp emote still has intended meaning and if the PogChamp emote should have stayed on Twitch. Now the focus is no longer on the live streamers. This can cause people to leave their stream. This causes both the live streamers and Twitch to lose money. And when your life depends on your view count and your donations, that can be a recipe for disaster. An article by Anushka Kulkarni makes a great point saying “The people who follow these social media websites are engaged in commenting and sharing this information further to other audiences. They produce and distribute content too. These users are politically very active by liking and commenting on various issues which thus encourages political engagement.(Brunello, 2012)(Chandler, 2008). People are inclined to comment on such controversial issues. They want to engage and share their opinions with their fellow peers.
Like a tweet mentioned above, many think that this is going against a naïve right people are born with in the United States — freedom of speech. Freedom of speech can be a valid argument in some situations but here, Twitch made an executive decision to prevent civil and political unrest on their platform. Memes and emotes are used politically all the time. Freedom of speech applies to the government, not private websites or businesses. The removal of the PogChamp emote is to keep political unrest and discourse at bay. Memes can be used in a political sense for good, like noted by Teresa Pineiro-Otero and Xabier Martinez-Rolan “The power of memes, of memecracy, resides in the “Creative force of digital ARTivism for social ACTivism”. The communicative value of memes has not only been paramount for social movements; it has also led political parties, leaders and institutions to integrate them in their strategies.” While this can be a good thing, that is not what is happening on the private social media platform Twitch. Twitch took the emote down to prevent what maybe a storm of anger and unrest. It saves Twitch from constantly monitoring streams, which no one wants, and having to censor further what can and cannot be talked about on the platform. Limor Shifman makes a great point in explaining that a single image can be used to make a large political statement just like the PogChamp emote did. Shifman said “In memetic photos that refer to political actors, the process of exposing the contructedness of photos turns into a critical comment about politics at large.” (Shifman 2014) In this case, Ryan Gutierrez became a political actor and played the politics game as soon as he tweeted those infamous tweets. Twitch’s goal is to keep the platform a live streaming platform that strays away from political activism and political statements.
This situation has often been compared to the removal of Donald Trump on Twitter. Donald Trump has tweeted and said some very controversial things which in turn, got him voted off Twitter. Many say that his removal is going against Freedom of Speech, very similar to the PogChamp removal. Unfortunately, memes can be used for very dividing purposes. Beskow said a very straight to the point statement that applies to both the PogChamp meme and Donald Trump “On the Internet, these memes activate inherent biases in a culture or society, sometimes replacing logical approaches to persuasive argument.” Donald Trump in this day and time has become a meme. “Covfefe” and other similar sayings that he has tweeted has changed culture and the internet forever. The removal of the PogChamp emote from Twitch is very similar to the banning of Donald Trump, both being very dividing in a community, but needed for the internet as a whole.
Like I have mentioned previously, many had wanted the removal of the PogChamp. Some were outspoken about the removal and others not so much. A fellow Twitch Streamer, CriticalBard spoke out about the removal and actually became one of the rotating faces of the PogChamp emote. The Verge wrote an article on CriticalBard’s experiences of the removal and his experience being the new PogChamp emote. “At the beginning it was fine. I was nervous. I’ll say beforehand I prepped my mods on Twitch,” Jones says. “And they were like, ‘Well, the person who’s a PogChamp today seems like they’re doing fine. So I think you’ll be fine.’ I said ‘Ha but I’m Black.’” Jones started receiving comments on Twitter from people saying that he didn’t look like PogChamp, that Twitch should bring back the old emote instead, and then “a crap ton of people, you know, saying racist things.” (The Verge) He knew that there would be backlash when speaking out and being the new face. But CriticalBard knew that it is important for Twitch and the entire internet culture of streaming to remove Ryan Gutierrez’s face. Similar to previously mentioned, he did get bullied for being the PogChamp emote, but he would rather be bullied about being black and getting his name out there than leave a racist and politically dividing person as the face of Twitch.
So. Where does that leave us and Twitch? Twitch is now a much better platform. The “Face of Twitch” is no longer a political divider but a harmless lizard that cannot make political statements. Twitch now has stronger feelings towards political topics and bullying and have implemented different policies to cut down on the politics and the harrasement. Twitch has affected so many lives including my own. Many people have met life long friends on Twitch and have built a career from the ground up. No one knew how the removal of the PogChamp emote was going to change Twitch — good or bad. Since its removal, Twitch has become a much better place to live stream. Many people have had successful careers around live streaming and without the platform, they’d be working desk jobs without an audience to share their experiences with. Twitch has changed for the better since the removal of the PogChamp emote and Ryan Guiterrez. Political discourse on the internet is unavoidable. It cannot be fully stopped and the internet will always have an issue whether the issue is addressed or not. Twitch has taken a stance and has allowed the internet to finally take a step back and wonder if it is appropriate on a live streaming platform. Although many people are still upset, many are now thankful they have a place to share their love of video games. This is the lesson that many still have to learn. Political discourse is not right on a platform that is not aimed towards politics. Video games are spieical and should remain wholesome and true. And that is what Twitch has aimed to keep. I think they’re doing a great job at what they have achieved. Many are upset and many are fans of the decision. No matter what the opinion on the matter is, Twitch will remain a live streaming platform.
