After the face behind PogChamp used social media to invite continued ‘civil unrest’ from his followers, the popular Twitch emote was removed from the live streaming service. Twitch has promised to work with the community to come up with an emote that can capture hype moments on the platform, and many entertainers make suggestions – if they do not present their own faces.
One Twitch streamer, Sean Plott, wants to see a variety of faces when users type ‘PogChamp’. But there is also be worried that connecting an emote to any real person (or people) can lead to similar problems, because there is nothing to know when someone pulls a Milkshake Duck.
Yo @Twitch suggestion for PogChamp: create a database of streamer and / or general faces. When someone types PogChamp, one of the faces appears randomly. Will give a lot of crowd feeling to a chat being spammed by PogChamp, and allow the meaning to be linked to all of us instead.
– Sean Plott (@ day9tv) 7 January 2021
But emphasizing a specific personality can also be a great opportunity to encourage inclusivity in the community. Natasha “Zombaekillz” Zinda, the creator of the content that led the charge by asking Twitch to take down the emote, tells Polygon that she will choose Kahlief Adams, host of the Spawn on Me video game, to be the new face for exciting moments on the platform.
“He was a voice for change in the black community,” Zinda said, nothing that Adams used on his platforms to have ‘important’ conversations about the gambling industry. “He is the epitome of joy and inclusivity in our space,” she added. Adams seems to welcome the proposal, not only tweeting the nominations of his cartoon emote on social media on Twitter, but also offering a possible photo option.
Just like that, some hope that Twitch highlights a Black creator of some kind to succeed PogChamp, ideally someone who is also in the fighting game community. The FGC has a number of black personalities, some of whom are top players in the space. And since the original PogChamp face became popular for playing Street Fighter, it might be a good idea to follow it up with something reminiscent of the roots. In the past, Twitch has been criticized for supporting black creators only after national attention to police violence – and even then, the platform made the mistake of initially centering white voices. PogChamp can be a great step in relieving some of the stress.
While replacement proposals are reaching the goose, almost everyone wants the new PogChamp to feature someone – or something – with an equally bewildered face. Many social media nominations feature faces with the same expression as the original PogChamp. If it is not a real person, the illustration or emote still looks slack.
Then again, it’s just as possible for Twitch to follow up PogChamp with an emote that does not use the wording at all. Polygon has reached out to Twitch regarding its plans for the new hype emote, whether it’s a completely original design, or if it’s going to use a different real personality.