The Real Meaning And Story Behind PogChamp

If you've spent any time in the online gaming community, odds are you've seen the PogChamp face pop up from time to time. It appears in memes, in Twitch chats, and even as a faceless hashtag to express excitement over something. But not everyone knows the actual meaning and story behind the PogChamp face. In order to explain its history, we need to go back to two gamers: Gootecks (real name Ryan Gutierrez) and Mike Ross of Cross Counter TV.

The face itself originated when Cross Counter TV shared a blooper reel of Gutierrez and Ross behind the scenes on a video they were filming. At one point, the camera slid off of its stand and almost fell, inciting the now classic reaction from Gutierrez, who looked over at Ross to see his reaction to the incident.

But here's the most interesting part of the origin story: the video that gave us the face is different from the one that gave us the name. 

One year after Ross and Gutierrez released their blooper reel — the one in which Gutierrez gave that unforgettable look — they posted a video promoting the Mad Catz Tournament Edition Fight Stick. In the video, the two decide to have a Pog tournament. At first, it seems that Ross is winning every Pog in the stack using his Slammer. But then Gutierrez gets a brilliant idea: use a bigger Slammer. Taking the Mad Catz T.E. Fight Stick, he drops the entire enormous thing onto the tall stack of Pogs, claiming them for himself. The camera stays focused on the fallen Pogs for a moment, before Gutierrez declares himself the "Pog Champion."

The way the two separate videos became associated with one another is something that may go down in meme history, but the two are now synonymous with the highest level of hype. To this day, the PogChamp emote is one of the most used emotes on Twitch chat. And even though Gutierrez didn't even know about the meme right away, he fully embraces his status as PogChamp.