Meaning
What does TriHard mean?
Based on a picture taken of Mychal Ramon βTrihexβ Jefferson, TriHard is one of the original emotes created for the streaming website Twitch.tv.
The emote features Mychal with an open mouth, smiling with excitement on his face.
The emote can be used to express excitement and in other cases to describe someone who is trying hard to accomplish something, otherwise known as being a try hard.
Origin
What's the origin of TriHard?
The original picture of what the emote is based on was taken on an anime convention which Mychal has attended.
He can be seen posing with a woman while holding up a Dragon Ball wall scroll picture. Mychal himself has turned this into an emote in 2012 while doing a livestream on Twitch.tv, which was later posted and spammed by his viewers to a poll by the staff of the site, looking for new and original emotes.
It has passed and was added to the collection later in 2012.
Spread & Usage
How did TriHard spread?
Due to it being one of the very first original emotes and the context of Mychal trying very hard after seeing Twitch.tv staff watching his stream (thus getting the TriHard name) it has become ever so popular over the years.
As of 10/12/2019 according to the website StreamElements, TriHard is the 3rd on the list of most popular/used emotes on the website Twitch.tv, making it one of the most popular emotes.

External resources
- Polygon.com β A guide to understanding Twitch emotes
- Know Your Meme β TriHard