Zombaekillz Leads Effort to Have Twitch Remove PogChamp From Emotes
After the incredibly unseasoned attempt at a coup on the U.S. Capitol, the man behind the Twitch emote PogChamp tweeted a message sympathizing with the domestic terrorists committing treason in Washington D.C. Content creator and blacktivist Zombaekillz told Twitch it was time to remove the PogChamp emote. And surprisingly, Twitch followed through.
January 6, 2021 will go down as yet another stain in U.S. history as Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to steal the electoral votes, believing Trump was cheated out of reelection. One of the insurgents was shot by Capitol police while trying to break into the Capitol Building and she died hours later at an area hospital. Street Fighter player Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez took to Twitter to edge on more civil unrest in her honor, calling the terrorist a #MAGAMartyr.
Gooteck’s statement was beyond unsettling for most in the gaming community with most on Twitter condemning his remarks. Denny the Villain tweeted, for those that didn’t know, that “This is what the face of that PogChamp emote you love to spam is up to now”. Zombaekillz suggested to Twitch that the time to remove the emote PogChamp is now. “so @Twitch due to this lovely statement...i think this pogchamp emote needs to be removed.”
Zombae went on to ban the emote from her chat and showed others how they could ban the emote as well. Twitch streamers followed suit and began announcing they, too, were banning the emote from their chat. While many, if not most Twitch users didn’t expect a response, let alone action, so quickly, Twitch made the move to remove the emote.
Twitch says that because the emote has become bigger than the image and the person behind it, and a huge part of Twitch and gaming culture, they will be working with content creators to create a new emote.
