The Meaning of PogChamp: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know what the online slang term PogChamp means? This article will tell you everything you need to know about PogChamp.

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The Meaning of PogChamp

PogChamp is a Twitch emote, which is used as a reaction in a Twitch stream when something good happens. The PogChamp emote has risen in popularity on Twitch’s platform since its inception in 2010. This is short for pog champion, or pogs championship. Many other social media platforms like Facebook posts or Tweets on Twitter have also referenced the PogChamp emote.

Air Entertainment states that there are many variations and derivatives of the term PogChamp in gaming. These include poggers (which uses a Pepe the Frog emote), OkayChamp, PogU, WeirdChamp, and pog, as well as other alternatives. While the original Twitch emote for Pogchamp was removed at the beginning of 2021, it has since been replaced by other various different emotes that are able to be used by Twitch chat streaming. A stream is when a gamer — also known as a Twitch streamer — posts or live streams content, usually of themselves playing video games.

The Origin of PogChamp

Air Entertainment references the term pog as a precursor to PogChamp. This stood for play of the game and was used as an acronym. A play of the game is the best move made in a game, hence its association with positivity. 

The term PogChamp (pog champion,) which is commonly used in Twitch chat, originated in November 2010. Ryan Gutierrez, also known as Gootecks, and Mike Ross are professional Street Fighter players. They posted a blooper video on their YouTube channel that contained many different wild expressions that led to the creation of Twitch emotes. The new PogChamp emote quickly became popular amongst Twitch users.

However, the emote was removed due to Gootecks’ involvement in the January 2021 Capitol riots and related civil unrest. He created controversy on his YouTube channel when he defended Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol as well as held sympathy for the #MAGAMartyr death. The further violence and controversy incited by viewers of Gootecks led to the removal of the emote.

The Twitch platform stated that they could not in good conscience continue to enable use of the image. While the world is a big place and those who participate in Twitch culture or the Twitch community may have opposing views on politics or the Capitol building incident, the streaming platform Twitch could not have the face of the PogChamp emote, one of the most popular emotes, by a source of controversy. 

History of Twitch

According to Streamers Play Book, Twitch was not always called Twitch. The streaming service was founded by Justin Kan, Emmett Shear, Michael Seibel, and Kyle Vogt in the year 2005 and it was known as Justin.tv. While the functions of the original website were similar, it was on a much smaller scale.

Twitch was founded as a spin-off company in 2011 based on a reference to a term known as twitch gameplay, which refers to a challenge or level in a video game that tests the player’s reaction time. After only one year as a platform, Twitch had gained over 20 million unique visitors per month. 

This grew even more exponentially, and by the year 2014, Twitch had 55 million viewers per month. This surpassed websites like Hulu, Amazon, Facebook, and Valve. The streaming site made up 1.8% of internet traffic.

Due to its alarming rate of success, the company was bought out in August 2014. Amazon paid $970 million to acquire the platform. Google was also vying to buy Twitch. From here, they added a subscription service called Twitch Prime in 2016, which was later renamed Prime Gaming to fall in alignment with Amazon’s services. This platform continues to grow today.

Synonyms of PogChamp

If you use the term PogChamp with people who are not familiar with the Twitch platform or Twitch slang, this can be confusing. The term PogChamp is so specific that it is best to save this for use only on Twitch, or with people who you know will understand the meaning of the term. In other situations where you would describe something as PogChamp, it is best to use a synonym. Take a look at this list of words that have a similar meaning to PogChamp from Thesaurus and see which of these can be used in your intended context.

  •  astonishing
  •  wonderful
  •  exceptional
  •  excellent
  •  great
  •  beautiful
  •  terrific
  •  fabulous
  •  cool
  •  awesome
  •  amazing
  •  impressive
  •  marvelous
  •  mind-blowing
  •  remarkable
  •  intense
  •  outstanding

Antonyms of PogChamp

If you are trying to describe something that is the opposite of PogChamp, you can try using an antonym. Antonyms are words that have the opposite meaning of a given word or phrase. Take a look at this list of words that have an opposite meaning of PogChamp from Thesaurus and see which ones you would want to use. 

  • cheesy
  • dreadful
  • amiss
  • downer
  • cruddy
  • slipshod
  • awful
  • substandard
  • unsatisfactory
  • gross
  • fallacious
  • crappy
  • inferior
  • dissatisfactory
  • grody
  • abominable
  • sad
  • defective
  • lousy
  • garbage
  • unacceptable
  • diddly
  • blah
  • inadequate
  • erroneous

Overall, the term PogChamp means great, or awesome. This is a Twitch emote that is used by fans of online gamers in the Twitch community and online gaming community. This emote has quite a bit of controversy behind it, but it is still a popular reaction to find today in many different Twitch streams. This and other new emotes are similar to emojis or emoticons.

Sources:

  1. POG – What does POG stand for? | The Free Dictionary 
  2. What Does Pog Mean in Gaming and Where Did it Originate? | Air Entertainment 
  3. What Does Pog Mean and Stand for? (with Cool Examples) | 7ESL 
  4. Valkyrae comments on RFLCT skincare controversy | Dot Esports 
  5. 59 Synonyms & Antonyms for AWESOME | Thesaurus.com 
  6. Twitch Emotes | TwitchEmotes
  7. 189 Synonyms & Antonyms for BAD | Thesaurus.com 
  8. Twitch History | From Beginning to Now – Streamers PlaybookÂ