PogChamp: the emote that marks the end of a play
PogChamp marks the instant of the play, which is the end of the moment and not the start of it. Where to put the in-point when chat pops off with it.
What PogChamp is
PogChamp was for years a photo of the fighting-game player Ryan Gutierrez pulling a surprised face. Twitch removed the original image in January 2021 and refilled the slot several times; the token itself survived intact in third-party emote sets, which is where most chats send it from now.
What chat is doing when it fires
It fires on impact. Chat sends PogChamp at the instant something impressive resolves — the shot lands, the number comes up, the thing works — and the burst decays within a few seconds because there is nothing left to react to.
Before you cut the clip
The spike is your out-point, not your in-point. Whatever made the moment impressive happened before anyone could type, so the clip needs the ten to twenty seconds of setup ahead of the burst or it opens on a result with no cause.
How Reelium reads it
- A message carrying PogChamp is counted as a hype reaction.
- Only the emote counts. Typing "pogchamp" as plain text is not read as hype on its own.
- A message that also carries laughter is counted as that instead. Each message counts once.
- A window is read on its strongest single category rather than the sum of all four, and a burst from one account is discounted against the same burst from many people.
FAQ
What does PogChamp mean?
It means chat was impressed or surprised by something that just happened. It is the standard reaction to a good play, a big number, or an unexpected success.
Is PogChamp banned on Twitch?
The original image was retired by Twitch in January 2021. The word itself was never blocked, and chats carried on using it through third-party emote sets, which is why it still appears in a chat replay today.