TriHard

TriHard is a popular Twitch emote that primarily expresses excitement, enthusiasm, or someone trying their best (trying hard) at something. The emote features the excited facial expression of Twitch streamer TriHex. While it's often used positively to show hype or celebrate achievements, it has unfortunately also been misused in some contexts, particularly when viewers inappropriately spam it during streams featuring Black content creators.

The TriHard emote originates from a photo of Mychal 'TriHex' Jefferson, a Twitch streamer known for speedrunning Yoshi's Island. The specific image was captured at the Akon-23 anime convention in Dallas, Texas, in June 2012, where TriHex was photographed with an excited expression while holding a Dragon Ball wall scroll.

The name 'TriHard' itself has an interesting origin story. During a 2014 Yoshi's Island speedrun, a Twitch staff member asked TriHex, 'Why are you trying so hard?' This interaction led to the creation and naming of the emote. TriHard was officially added to Twitch as a global emote in 2014, making it available across all channels on the platform.

TriHard is commonly used in the following contexts:

• When a streamer or player is putting in maximum effort or 'trying hard' to accomplish something difficult
• To express excitement or hype during impressive gameplay moments or achievements
• When celebrating or showing enthusiasm for something happening on stream
• Sometimes used ironically when someone is being overly competitive or taking something too seriously
• As part of emote combinations or chat memes specific to certain communities

The emote has become one of the most recognizable on Twitch and is frequently used across many different streaming communities.