phase 1

• piglet/poohmandu - the OG! whiny bratty attention-seeking dongsaeng and his chill indulgent idgaf hyung, the couple igns and their playstyle that perfectly fit their '100 acre lane' nickname
• flame/ambition - a vague memory now but i ~think they were competitive as hell and prbly fought a lot and that kind of fiery relationship is delicious ngl. also flame was very pretty and ambition looked like he could commit murder which is an a+ combo

phase 2

• dandy/mata - the bickering and tension and messy, messy feelings, going from the highs of winning worlds together to the lows of bottom-tier lpl hell (i owe this one 100% to all the wonderful fic)
• looper/dade - again this was 100% bc of the fic and also that one photo of them sitting beside each other in their down jackets, smiling brightly and looking as if they decided to retire to the countryside and live an ordinary life
• clearlove/koro1 - the angsty tragic BE ship of my dreams, literally wept watching their fanvids and reading break-up (not really make-up) future fics, also koro's red-rimmed eyes after crying...smth smth there is a certain kind of beauty to suffering...
• faker/cpt jack - the way cpt jack was the only person that faker would troll in soloq and cpt jack malding so much he (repeatedly?) reported him, and then their roommate adventures at all-stars where cpt jack had to tell faker not to brush his teeth with shower gel and then they actually got close after staying up all night talking
• score/smeb - susu duo! smol soft hyung whose 2hp baron in lck finals got stolen by the bright-as-the-sun dongsaeng that became his teammate a few months later (and they eventually won a lck title ~together)
• gorilla/pray - i'm still ToT thinking about how longzhu-era prilla raised an entire family of kids on their own, despite the very difficult circumstances. mom!gorilla who kindly took care of everyone and kept things in order and dad!pray who played well with the kids and made them laugh but also went out to eat by himself bc he needed some recharge/alone-time. the classic bot duo that complements each other and the most wholesome found family feels ;-;

phase 3

• tarzan/icon - the way i fell flat on my face for these two after stumbling upon a photo of them and seeing the weibo comments underneath that confirmed my suspicions that they were indeed a cp lmao. quiet and kind of spacy disney princess tarzan and tattooed fuerdai icon whose personality isn't as flashy as you'd expect. so many casual touches/skinship and the rent-free-in-my-mind moment is that time icon took off his bling bling chain necklace and put it on tarzan (like it was some goddamn public proposal)

honourary mentions

• smeb/kuro - duet partner bros who absolutely would hold his bro if he cries (and has done so in the past)
• gorilla/kuro - bickering b(f)fs whose closeness has withstood the test of time
• bengi/faker - skt t1 k's other bratty dongsaeng/indulgent hyung duo
• ruler/corejj - clingy puppy! and the calm master that raised him
• rox tigers/meiko - half-serious but smeb/pray/kuro's adoration of 'cute boy iko' was hilarious
• marin/pyl - cat dads with matching striped sweatshirts
• doublelift/biofrost - solely based on their tsm duos video