UPDATE 1/8:  Following a suggestion made by Sean "Day[9]" Plott, Twitch will be replacing the PogChamp emote with a new emote every day. 

Original Story:

On the evening of Wednesday, Jan 6, Twitch updated their site, removing popular emote, PogChamp, following a series of messages from the face of the emote, Ryan "gootecks" Gutierrez. gootecks originally made the face in 2010 in part of a YouTube series with fellow fighting game community personality, Mike Ross, Counter Cross TV, and the name comes from a later video featuring the same two hosts.

Despite its popularity on the site, Twitch released the following statement along with their removal of the emote. 

In their statement, Twitch is referencing a series of Tweets made by gootecks surrounding the events that transpired at the United States Capitol Building on January 6. A large group of rioters stormed the campus in protest, breaking into the Capitol, and invading the building. Congress was scheduled to confirm the Electoral College's votes for President Biden today. One woman was shot in the neck and died, which gootecks publically referenced.

gootecks first tweeted out that he would later share a graphic video of her death, simultaneously inciting violence in return and noting alleged censorship by Twitter. He then tweeted a recording of the woman being shot, again noting censorship. He claimed the rioter "gave her life for our country," and in both tweets, he used the hashtag #MAGAMartyr. 

Along with the invasion of the Capitol building, there were several explosives found on the campus as well.

Popular political streamer HasanAbi was streaming throughout the day covering the events as they transpired live. He was also live upon PogChamp's removal, showing frustration since the emote had "transcended the person itself," but acknowledged that he had gone "alt-right." 

Twitch has acknowledged the importance of the hype emote and said it will work together with the community to make a replacement. 

gootecks has not publically responded to Twitch's removal of the emote.

This is an ongoing story, check back here and follow our Twitter below for updates.