Pogchamp, the face often seen as an emote whenever something is hyped up in the eSports community, has also been used as a meme extensively across the internet for the longest time since its birth in November, 2010. Cross counter TV released a blooper video featuring street fighter veterans Ryan ?Gootecks? Gutierrez and Mike Ross, where 2 minutes and 8 seconds into the video, the cameraman accidentally hits the tripod holding the camera, leading to the famous #pogchamp expression on Gootecks? face. The members of the internet community loved the unexpected face, but the expression did not have a name to go with it until a year later, where the duo released a Madcatz Promo video on Cross Counter TV.
Image Source: KnowYourMeme
In the video, Gootecks is seen playing a game of pogs with Mike Ross, where in order to beat his opponent, he drops a Madcatz TE fightstick on Mike?s stack of pogs. At the end of the promo, Gootecks looks at the camera and says ?pog champions?, giving the internet community the perfect name to go with his expression. The meme exploded, mainly among the communities on 4chan, Reddit and Twitch.TV.
Meme: #PogCena, an example of a pogchamp meme remix. Source: Imgur
Twitch soon decided to add pogchamp as an emote, and the meme went viral ever since. Pogchamp currently is among the top 5 most used emotes as claimed by StreamElements, and can be tracked to see its popularity over time on the TwitchEmotes site (the stats option shows that it has been popular for the entirety of 2017, being used around 2 million times per day on average). The meme has become so popular over time that it can be seen being used outside of gaming and in our everyday lives. Some examples are as follows:
?Getting extra fries on the side for free? #pogchamp?
?The officer uses massive bazookas to fight crime? #pogchamp?
?Bonus marks for using a meme in an assignment? #pogchamp?
If you?re a fan of visual cues, the following video from theScore esports might be helpful:
Source: theScore esports on YouTube
Anyways, Gootecks embraced the meme popularity, making use of it to make his own brand. The veteran has recently come out with a new look, which is very similar to that of the protagonist of the movie Blade or even Morpheus from the movie Matrix. However, none of the new appearances/expressions made by Gootecks compare to the flux of popularity that belongs pogchamp, which to this day, continues to be remixed on an everyday basis.
