>>18639172TriHard controversy
Jefferson's face is one of the most widely recognized on Twitch; it appears as TriHard, a popular emote usable by anyone who uses the site.[1] The emote's origins lie in a photograph of Jefferson posing with a woman at a Dallas anime convention in the summer of 2012.[1][24] Jefferson was later amused by his expression, and posted the image to his Twitter. As he recalls, "it went viral in my own chat, and I was happy with it. I agree, that was a very cringe smile I made. That girl was cute and I was freaking out and lost all of my spaghetti, and it's forever documented in that face being super-awkward."[1]
When Twitch surveyed its users for global emote suggestions, fans begged for Jefferson's nervous smile to be made site-wide. When a Twitch employee joined his chat, Jefferson quickly attempted to show off some difficult gameplay to get their attention, and the employee dubbed the emote "TriHard".[1]
Beginning in 2016, the emote has been used as a racist symbol, with users spamming the image in the presence of apes or African-American people on-stream, or alongside racist messages directed at black streamers. Since Jefferson's face had emerged as a "de facto slur" on Twitch, some streamers have banned TriHard from their chat.[24][25] Jefferson has spoken out against calls for a site-wide ban on the emote, arguing that "it's not the emote's fault that it's being used for racist things," and pointing to its positive use in different contexts.[1] He also places the responsibility for ending its misuse on streamers and their chat moderators, rather than on chatters.[1] Jefferson later mocked Twitch's handling of a similar controversy surrounding a KFC promotional emote.[26]
TriHard is currently one of the most used emotes on Twitch.[2]