PogChamp Replacements Are Bringing Out The Worst

Recently, twitch announced the removal of the official pogchamp emote due to the face of the emote Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez who was in a controversy wherein he encouraged further violence via Twitter after a woman involved in the riot was fatally wounded.

Soon after the removal of the face of the pogchamp emote, twitch announced a new PogChamp emote idea and that a new creator would be selected every 24-hours to be the new PogChamp of the day. However, some creators who have been featured in the pogchamp emote including Critical Bard have been attacked by large waves of harassment and racism. Critical Bard was also attacked for his support of the BLM movement with clips from his stream being taken out of context.

Also, On January 12th, PogChamp featured a streamer/drag queen who plays a variety of games on the platform. Deere shared a Reddit thread on Twitter focused on a discussion about her PogChamp emote. The thread had been locked from further comments for being too contentious. Regardless, it is not Twitch’s fault for the way its community reacted, but it is not surprising if other content creators will decline its offer to be PogChamp of the day after the actions displayed by hateful users.