The show that took social media by storm, “Heated Rivalry,” started off as the Game Changers book series by Rachel Reid. The series consists of six books that follow different LGBTQ love storylines with a different hockey player. The first book, “Game Changer,” opens up with Scott and Kip’s love story, which was adapted into the show. The second book, “Heated Rivalry,” follows Shane and Illya’s relationship. The last four books include “Tough Guy”, that introduces Ryan and Fabian, “Common Goal”, that follows Eric and Kyle, “Role Model”, that captures Troy and Harris’s story, and “The Long Game”, that circles back to Shane and Illya. With the popularity of the “Heated Rivalry” TV series fans are now selling out the whole series and Rachel Reid has announced a seventh book,“Unrivaled”, to add to the series that will once again focus on Shane and Illya.
“Heated Rivalry” was adapted into a six-episode show by Jacob Teirney, which soon blew up in fame as it premiered on November 28, 2025 to HBO Max. The series was in the top three for three weeks on HBO Max. The show follows the story of two rival Hockey stars, 18-year-old Shane Hollander, who gets drafted for the Montreal Voyagers and 18-year-old Ilya Rozanov, who is drafted for the Boston Bears. Within the first episode, both players get drafted by the NHL and become rivals as team captains. The media plays a huge role in pitting each team captain against each other by showing how loyal hockey fans really are. After shooting a commercial, the rivals hook up and continue to hook up for years hiding while slowly developing a deep emotional bond.
This show highlights the many challenges there are for a closeted hockey star, as it reflects on Shane and Illya’s relationship as well as Scott and Kip’s relationship, by showing how hard it is to always hide who you really are. The show is more than its sexual scenes as it takes the audience through an emotional rollercoaster of both Shane’s and Illya’s inner struggles of secrecy, shame and overcoming internalized homophobia from a professional league.
I really enjoyed this show as I didn’t expect it to be a beautiful love story that took eight years for both main characters to accept their love for each other, to finally be happy even if it meant hiding from the public. I can’t wait until the next season that is set to release in spring of 2027. I hope they also continue the book to be their own series to have the other characters and stories come to life.
