How a VTuber clip channel led to a TwitchCon post

In 2021, VIL was just another fan, running a small YouTube channel where he shared his favorite VTuber moments. That’s when he found Ava Lamp’s flows — and something clicked.

Four years later, he was on one knee on the balcony at TwitchCon 2025, asking Ava to marry him.

Like many modern romances, the love story between VTubers VIL and Ava Lamp began online. “I liked her personality, her content, and her model,” VIL told Mashable at TwitchCon 2025, adding that he liked her “way of joking” and her “very kind girl’s VTube model.”

“So, I followed it and started cutting it [streams]“And I noticed the clips,” he said.

From there, the online friendship began to grow. They talked more, collaborated, and eventually, VIL became a VTuber himself. The two soon became inseparable online — “best friends,” as he put it.

He began to fall in love with her, but Ava was clear: there was no chance of romance. She was a lesbian, and would never date another creator. “But then that changed,” she joked to Mashable.

Two years later, the friends decided to attend TwitchCon 2023 with a group of mutual friends. This will be their first time meeting in person. They shared a hotel room with another friend and spent the three days side by side – laughing, exploring, and, it seemed, confusing everyone around them.

Their friends kept asking if they were dating. They will laugh and deny it. Of course not! How ridiculous.

“We spent most of the weekend together and did almost everything together,” she said. “You know when you connect with someone? Do you have that spark? That’s what I felt. And I said to myself, ‘I can’t not tell you.’ Because if we leave here, I won’t be brave enough to tell you this later.”

On the last day of the conference, she wrote a note on her phone in the back seat of the Uber and handed it to him. “Please don’t hate me,” she said.

The message, as they recall it, was: “I know I said I wouldn’t date a man and I wouldn’t date a creator either, but after getting to know you and seeing you in person, I feel a spark.”

“It was so funny because at no point in the note did she ask me out,” VIL said. “She was just expressing her feelings in this note. As far as I knew, there was a zero percent chance of that happening. And now, all of a sudden, it was a hundred percent chance. So I was kind of watching the blue screen.”

In the back of the Uber, they dove straight into the big questions — marriage, kids, moving. They already knew each other as friends, but now they needed to know if they were compatible or not. show? She was.

Mashable trend report

There was only one problem: distance. They lived across the country from each other. So, the next year, they made it run long distance. They traveled to see each other every couple of months, hung out together, and even wore those bracelets that buzzed when the other person touched their bracelets.

After TwitchCon 2024, they decided it was time. Ava packed her life into a U-Haul, and they drove cross-country together — between two hurricanes.

“Driving in the U-Haul was terrifying,” VIL said. “I’ve only driven this big truck once or twice. So this, along with all of my partner’s life stuff, is in a truck. And I’m the one driving it.”

“Nothing bad happened,” Ava reassured him.

By the time they sat down with Mashable at the San Diego Convention Center for TwitchCon 2025, the two were fidgeting with each other’s hands, both wearing matching silver bracelets with red jewels — alternatives to long-distance bracelets. Ava said moving in together was a “huge relief” because “we’re finally going to be spending all our time together.”

Since the milestones of their relationship coincided with TwitchCon — they met in person at TwitchCon 2023, and after TwitchCon 2024, they moved in together — they knew TwitchCon 2025 had to be something special.

VIL started a secret group chat with all of his friends, everyone except Ava. On the first morning of the conference, Ava was taking her time getting ready while he was trying to stay calm.

“I tried to play it cool,” he joked, but the engagement ring — a temporary ring until it becomes the real one, made with stones from her grandmother and great-grandmother’s rings — was burning a hole in his pocket.

“I was checking him very obsessively to make sure he hadn’t fallen,” he said.

“I saw you checking your pocket a few times, but I didn’t check. I thought you were worried about losing your phone or something,” she laughed.

They had breakfast with friends, but he was eager to get to the convention center. He had a plan: a balcony overlooking the ocean. However, Ava wanted to stop at the merchandise table first.

“Last year, she wanted merchandise and was sold out, and I knew I didn’t want that to happen again,” he said. “So when you say, ‘Can we get this item quickly?’ I want to make sure I get it before anything happens.” In my mind, I’m like, ‘No, we have to go!’ But I also didn’t want to miss out on the goods. So I said, ‘Yes, yes, that’s fine, but can we try to be a little quick?’

Finally they reached the balcony. Their friends, who were all involved in the plan, asked the other participants to evacuate the area. VIL then asked Ava to check something on Discord. She opened her phone – and saw a piece of art dedicated to his VTuber character showing it to her. When I looked up, he was on one knee.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It may be downloaded or removed.

He doesn’t remember exactly what he said. All she remembers is that she said yes.

“[I love] “How kind you are and how you wear your heart on your sleeve,” Ava said when asked what she loves most about him. “And you’re not afraid to be emotional. I love how cute you are and how sweet you are.”

Then Phil made her cry.

“I love how brave you are,” he told her. He said that in the past, people tried to suppress her joy. “I’m so happy that you can be your whole self and you can just embrace yourself. You love fashion. You’re so goth. You love dyeing your hair. You love building Gundams, you love Legos, you love Disney. I love you. I love being you. And I’m happy that we can be our best selves together. You always encourage me to be my best self.”

They have no wedding plans yet – but if Twitch CEO Dan Clancy wants to sponsor them, they won’t be opposed.