Hmm, so I learned of pog in 2016 when my friends were into Overwatch, and pog was definitely used as an acronym from Play Of the Game (POTG is very clunky to say).
However, the PogChamp usage is from 2011, so the play of the game usage is either coincidental or an intentional decision on the part of Blizzard/Activision.
Most importantly, the POG in PogChamp does actually refer to the beverage disks. Weirdly enough, they were just a prop in an awkwardly acted ad for a gaming peripheral by a professional Street Fighter player/streamer. The actual usage of PogChamp probably started on 4Chan before appearing on Twitch, after which it spread.
I learnt PotG from Overwatch lol. I pronounce it “p-tog”. It’s what the fandom wiki for Overwatch calls it, it’s what reddit calls it (I couldn’t find even one example of pog being used that way from /r/overwatch, but I can see literally thousands of examples of PotG used that way) and what news organizations called it.
You can’t find a single example from r/Overwatch?
You’re not looking very hard then:
“Jump scare at the end of POG”
“Supports almost never get POG, now we don’t even get a card at the end of the match.”
“First POG is match POG”
“We want to talk after the PoG”
“This guy’s whole team left after the first round so we gave him POG…”
“Behind every Rein Pog is a support going through a rollercoaster of emotions”
“I remember when PoG was tweaked for assist points and every pog was Mercy rezzing two people and dying.”
“My friends and I have always called it POG. Not sure why but its what we do. I guess thats where it came from”
In fact, the large majority of the use of “pog” refers to Play Of Game and not hype. I did notice that this usage is more common in the last 4 years, while pogchamp is mostly used 4-7 years ago. The earliest upvoted usage of POG I can find there is “Taking Trobjorn and Bastion POG into a new dimension.” from 8 years ago though, so it was used contemporaneously with PogChamp.
POTG is definitely much more popular there, but saying the POG usage doesn’t exists is just wrong.
Also, news organizations have a horrendous record with slang, that’s terrible evidence. Especially when your source is a 404.
Besides, I can get spurious souces too (and they work!):
“POG”
an overused term on twitch that means “Play of Game”
Woah, that was pog.
by SSR Rules September 23, 2020
Hmm, so I learned of pog in 2016 when my friends were into Overwatch, and pog was definitely used as an acronym from Play Of the Game (POTG is very clunky to say).
However, the PogChamp usage is from 2011, so the play of the game usage is either coincidental or an intentional decision on the part of Blizzard/Activision.
Most importantly, the POG in PogChamp does actually refer to the beverage disks. Weirdly enough, they were just a prop in an awkwardly acted ad for a gaming peripheral by a professional Street Fighter player/streamer. The actual usage of PogChamp probably started on 4Chan before appearing on Twitch, after which it spread.
I learnt PotG from Overwatch lol. I pronounce it “p-tog”. It’s what the fandom wiki for Overwatch calls it, it’s what reddit calls it (I couldn’t find even one example of pog being used that way from /r/overwatch, but I can see literally thousands of examples of PotG used that way) and what news organizations called it.
You can’t find a single example from r/Overwatch? You’re not looking very hard then:
“Jump scare at the end of POG” “Supports almost never get POG, now we don’t even get a card at the end of the match.” “First POG is match POG” “We want to talk after the PoG” “This guy’s whole team left after the first round so we gave him POG…” “Behind every Rein Pog is a support going through a rollercoaster of emotions” “I remember when PoG was tweaked for assist points and every pog was Mercy rezzing two people and dying.” “My friends and I have always called it POG. Not sure why but its what we do. I guess thats where it came from”
In fact, the large majority of the use of “pog” refers to Play Of Game and not hype. I did notice that this usage is more common in the last 4 years, while pogchamp is mostly used 4-7 years ago. The earliest upvoted usage of POG I can find there is “Taking Trobjorn and Bastion POG into a new dimension.” from 8 years ago though, so it was used contemporaneously with PogChamp.
POTG is definitely much more popular there, but saying the POG usage doesn’t exists is just wrong.
Also, news organizations have a horrendous record with slang, that’s terrible evidence. Especially when your source is a 404.
Besides, I can get spurious souces too (and they work!):
“POG” an overused term on twitch that means “Play of Game” Woah, that was pog. by SSR Rules September 23, 2020