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Around 2008, a photo of an avid Komodo dragon was released on the Internet. Over a decade later, that lizard has become the new face of Twitch’s PogChamp emote. Here is the story of KomodoHype.
The Komodo dragon is a unique species of lizard native to the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang. Growing to a maximum length of 10 feet and 150 pounds, lizards are absolute beasts that feed on everything from unsuspecting birds to … horses.
Although it has been widely assumed that the Komodo dragon possesses poisonous saliva capable of knocking down larger mammals, this research is disputed. What cannot be disputed, however, is that an apparently smiling Komodo, known as KomodoHype, officially got infected and spread throughout Twitch.
Just a month of experimentation after the platform removed the original PogChamp emote, KomodoHype has been crowned a permanent successor. Based on a stock photo from around 2008, the cropped lizard emote has emerged and is now here to stay.
The origins of KomodoHype
THE REVOLUTION WILL BE TV pic.twitter.com/UveQ3mXr0L
– slweeb 🪱 (@slweeb) January 7, 2021
According to KnowYourMeme, the original photo of the Komodo dragon was shared on Daqi’s now-defunct website circa 2008. In the years since, the possibly smiling, possibly surprised, undoubtedly hyped, lizard has been photographed and published on DeviantArt and Reddit.
A decade later, in 2018, KomodoHype – a cropped, face-centric emote from the original bank image – began circulating on Twitch. Although he did not gain enough strength to become universally known, that changed in January 2021 when the removing PogChamp opened a void for an unproblematic emote with similar energy. Quickly, KomodoHype became a cult, as communities of streamers (like xQc) promoting the charismatic reptile.
After weeks of daily changes to the PogChamp emote based on community submissions, Twitch has finally led a “PogChampening” competition to decide the winner. By reducing the options to 35, KomodoHype was crowned True Lizard King and Pog Champion on February 12.
As prophecy predicted, KomodoHype is @Ticis new #PogChamp 🦎 pic.twitter.com/aa2jOPXwaW
– DEXERTO.COM (@Dexerto) February 12, 2021
What happened to the original PogChamp?
As for the original PogChamp emote, based on Ryan ‘Gootecks’ Gutierrez, it was pulled from Twitch in January 2021 following some comments from Gutierrez about taking the U.S. Capitol.
Deciding that the inspiration for the original emote had “encouraged further violence” due to some tweets about the day’s events, Twitch removed its face from the platform altogether.
Now, finally, Gutierrez has a successor. And, with the lizards lacking the opposable thumbs needed for Twitter, KomodoHype looks destined to rule for life as Twitch’s new PogChamp.
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