Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez Takes Controversial Stance on Capitol Hill Riots
Twitch has made the swift decision to remove the iconic PogChamp emote from the platform following a series of controversial statements from the emote’s star Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez. Gootecks made several controversial statements on his Twitter account following the storming of the Capitol in Washington DC yesterday afternoon, inciting further “civil unrest” in defense of a woman who died while participating in the riots.
Will there be civil unrest for the woman who was executed inside the Capitol today or will the #MAGAMartyr die in vain?
The video will be aired soon on (banned dot video) & (theresistance dot video) and it sounds pretty gruesome ?
— gootecks (@gootecks) January 6, 2021
He later posted the “gruesome” video of the woman in question, but due to the graphic nature of the tweet, we will not be sharing it here. The tweet states “Warning: this is graphic, but it’s important for everyone to see this video because we don’t know how it will try to be spun or suppressed and she gave her life for our country. Rest In Peace #MAGAMartyr 
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In a statement made by Twitch following Gooteck’s tweets, the streaming platform announced their removal of the emote as a result of Gooteck’s statements “encouraging further violence”.
We've made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol today.
— Twitch (@Twitch) January 7, 2021
In a series of follow up tweets, Twitch states their intention to have the term “Pog” live on as its impact on the platform goes far beyond its origins.
“We want the sentiment and use of Pog to live on – its meaning is much bigger than the person depicted or image itself– and it has a big place in Twitch culture. However, we can’t in good conscience continue to enable use of the image.” Twitch stated.
Twitch does intend on working with the community to “design a new emote for the most hype moments on Twitch.”
The PogChamp emote was originally created from a blooper video of fighter game personality, Gootecks, in 2010, though it was only added to Twitch in 2012. Since then it has become an iconic part of the platform’s culture, with many new spinoff terms and emotes deriving from it such as “Pog” and “Poggers”. Many streamers have even gone on to make their own version of the PogChamp emote for their own subscribers.