Thread by @karsuhh

You may be wondering why Virgil's fans are celebrating her graduation from Kometa. Under normal circumstances, we would be upset. I've personally spent a year of my free time following her as a dedicated fan. Lemme give you the (long) run down. #Kometa_VL

Firstly, Kometa basically gets a pass from the Filipino community for being "the first PH vtuber company". While this is true, they haven't actually done anything that couldn't have been achieved as an indie group. There are no managers, there is no merch, there are no ads.

The CEO, Gira, is a 20smth yr-old college dropout rich kid who has been vague posting about 'meetings', 'investment', and being 'hard at work' for a year. There is no practical communication. We were supposed to finally have merch for the 1yr anni, it still isn't here 6mths later

Gira appears most focused on becoming an e-celebrity. If you want to know about his gamer prowess, or how rich and important he is, you're in luck. If you want any news or updates about his company? Not so much. Let me run though my main complaints from the past year.

He promised Virgil on stream that he would pay for a new outfit once she reached 15k subs. Once Virgil was close to the goal, she sent him a preliminary design (second image). He was vague and evasive to her in private while still nodding along. Virgil assumed it was going ahead.

Once it came time for it to happen, he ghosted her for weeks until Virgil had an hour-long stream malding at him. He showed up to attempt play it off as a joke. Finally, he admitted in the chat that he couldn't afford a new outfit. Why not just tell her and the fans earlier?

Last October, there was an incident where Virgil's PC stopped working partway through a stream. After troubleshooting, they found the cause was a large amount of dust in the case. Gira pressed Virgil to let him show the image for 'twitter numbers'. Virgil repeatedly told him no.

It was posted anyway on the Kometa official twitter. Virgil took this pretty badly as a kind of public humiliation, and she was very upset and in tears on a twitter space. A very clear boundary was set, and she was ignored. The image was also never taken down.

This April, Kometa had a booth at a con called OnLive. During a presentation, Gira brought this same image up AGAIN on the screen to mock her with it in front of a crowd. He did this in full awareness of Virgil's feelings. His behavior would be comical if it weren't so repulsive.

Speaking of OnLive! Gira asked the talents if they wanted to perform live. Importantly, the talents where not properly informed about the difference between a live and a pre-recorded performance. Virgil volunteered to perform live, assuming that meant live stream to a crowd.

On the day of the event, the OnLive staff asked where Virgil was. For the organizers, "Live" referred to an in-person performance: on stage, IRL.
Virgil wouldn't have agreed to this, and it's against her contract. How Gira failed to realize this is beyond understanding.

It was never mentioned to them that live=on stage IRL. Virgil and Elaine both ended up doing prerecorded performances, but Miria could have also joined in. She was busy at the time and so refused, assuming she needed to be available.

So, Gira failed to communicate properly with the talents or Onlive, causing 1. Miria to miss out entirely and 2. disappointment for Virgil who was excited about the thought of streaming to a crowd. This isn't really the end of the world, just disappointing. The problem is after.

Not only did he not apologize or even bring this up; he acted like nothing had happened, and it was a job well done! "Time to have my deserved rest". Meanwhile, he left it to Virgil to explain what had happened. We fans were all under the impression it was going to be a live.

The talents have not been supported outside a few gifts. He ghosted Virgil about her first cover, her outfit, Elaine's graduation and more. While he was totally ignoring talents on important issues, he was responding within *minutes* to fan queries. He runs from responsibility.

Speaking of Elaine's graduation, oh boy. Elaine had no real choice but to graduate due to health issues. During her graduation stream, she said in tears she had agreed to "replacement". In other words, a new 'voice actor' for Elaines model, even re-using her channel.

This caused instant outcry. Virgil, Miria, and everyone else in live chat said Elaine is unique and can't be replaced. While not unprecedented, model recycling is highly questionable and is insulting to both Elaines legacy and to her fans.

The reasoning given was that Kometa lacks the resources to afford a new model or to start another channel from scratch. This is despite Kometa opening auditions for TWO new generations. (Of course, there has been no news regarding this either).

In desperation, we fans (the main driver being @utemika_1) opened a petition to oppose Elaine's model being re-used. At this time, days had passed with no announcement from Kometa since Elaine's stream. Elaine had announced she was being replaced and the company was silent.

Virgil+Miria themselves both retweeted and endorsed the petition, despite not being able to complain in public statements. They did make it quite clear about how they felt on twitter spaces however: They were distraught. Gira as usual was ignoring them.

One day after the petition was endorsed by the talents, Kometa issued a statement with this compromise: Different name, altered design, and Elaine's old content being left up. Gira then had an interview where he said changed his mind due to "recent business developments".

Kometa defenders insist this was the original idea, and we should've just waited. Gira literally said they changed plans, and he didn't tell the other talents ANYTHING until the statement five days after the fact. Simply put, he got blindsided by the talents rebelling.

Now comes the single most bizarre public action I've seen by a vtuber company. Gira changes his discord status to the first image. Later, he begins a stream on his ch. with "Sarah", aka, Elaine. This stream is still up, so you can check for yourself. Partway through the stream-

-Miria breaks down crying at work. Virgil (as "ryona") tells us she is comforting her. It's complicated to explain, but around this time is the moment -all- trust was broken between M, V, and G. Gira then pretends he has no idea why Miria is upset. (Remember the status).

He also forgot Miria's birthday. Or pretended to, just to be an ass. Straight after, Elaine (Sarah) posts the following and takes Giras side. Virgil and Miria haven't streamed since Elaines graduation announcement. Now, for very different reasons, they are following out the door.