The Long Game: What Happens In Heated Rivalry's Book Sequel (Spoilers)

This article contains spoilers for "Heated Rivalry" and "The Long Game."

Unless you've been living under some enormous hockey puck recently, you've probably at least heard of "Heated Rivalry," the hit Crave series (on HBO Max stateside) that became one of the year's biggest sensations in the last month of 2025. So what can we expect from season 2 of the series, which has already been greenlit and will continue following the original queer romance novel series "Game Changers" by New York Times Bestseller, Rachel Reid?

As creator and showrunner Jacob Tierney recently told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview, Reid's book "The Long Game" will serve as the source material. After two rival hockey players, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov (phenomenal newcomers Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie), strike up a secret relationship off the ice, they finally admit their love for each other and tell Shane's family, something we saw play out in the stunning season 1 finale "The Cottage." In that interview, Tierney said he hadn't started writing season 2 quite yet but knows the book's themes are "heavier," remarking that he promised Reid he'd "take this seriously."

"She takes them seriously in the second book. She's like, 'This is a real relationship and real relationships come with struggle,'" Tierney continued. "It's so compelling. I'm just excited to keep going on this journey with these characters, honestly." Not only that, but Tierney weighed in on the tonal shift and balance for season 2. "I think part of that is there's definitely an element of sadness to what's coming, of loneliness and of isolation," he remarked. "Of Ilya learning a lot about himself, and Shane learning a lot about himself too. I'm excited, and I still think at its heart, these books and this show, they want to entertain."

The answer is yes. There are six novels in Rachel Reid's series, and two — "Heated Rivalry" and "The Long Game" — center Shane and Ilya's relationship (we'll circle back to the others in just a moment). So what happens in "The Long Game?" We'll go over it in broad strokes, but this is your last warning: spoilers ahead!

"The Long Game" picks up as Shane and Ilya, who now both play for Canadian hockey teams — Shane for Montreal and Ilya for Ottawa, a move he makes to be closer to Shane — have been secretly together for a decade. They've created a meaningful joint charity (something Shane proposes in the season 1 finale) that also allows them to be seen together without raising suspicion, but Ilya, who's struggling with his mental health, still wants a public relationship with the man he loves. The two have a fight — but don't worry, they don't break up! When Ilya flies with the Centaurs and the plane is forced to make an emergency landing, Shane realizes how close he came to losing the man he loves and proposes marriage; Ilya accepts. Then, when they're caught in the back of a teammate's picture kissing, the two finally reveal their relationship to the world.

In that THR interview, Jacob Tierney was quite clear that season 2 will be a little more serious, but it'll be rewarding. "This is supposed to be fantasy romance, and I still want to keep it there," he said. "But I think part of the reason that it does work as entertainment is that we are taking this seriously, and that you're on a journey with two people that you feel have earned these moments." So what about other "Heated Rivalry" standouts?

Even though Jacob Tierney told Entertainment Weekly that season 2 would focus on Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie's characters — "We're following Shane and Ilya. That's not gonna be a shock" — fans are probably wondering if we'll see any more of Christopher "Kip" Grady and Scott Hunter, the barista and hockey player who fall in love elsewhere in season 1 of "Heated Rivalry" (portrayed by Robbie G.K. and François Arnaud, respectively). The first book in Rachel Reid's series, "Game Changer," centers on Kip and Scott, and we watch their love story play out in the third episode of the first season of "Heated Rivalry," titled "Hunter."

While Scott plays for the New York Admirals, he meets Kip at a local coffee shop, and the two strike up an unexpected connection (with Kip being understandably surprised to learn that this quite famous hockey star is a closeted gay man). Though the two, like Shane and Ilya, conduct their relationship in total secret, Kip starts to feel reasonably rotten about being Scott's secret, and Scott is afraid to come out as queer in his line of work. The two seem like they're in a rough spot by the end of "Hunter," but then, in the season's penultimate episode, "I'll Believe Anything," Scott finally understands that he can't hide his truth anymore. After the Admirals win the cup, Scott beckons Kip onto the ice, and they kiss in front of the entire world.

Not only is this kiss a catalyst for Shane and Ilya's own relationship, but it's a stunningly romantic moment. Tierney hasn't talked about Kip and Scott directly, but I certainly hope we'll see more of them in season 2. 

So, I have good news and bad news. The good news, again, is that season 2 of "Heated Rivalry" is definitely happening and that we have some grade A source material for it. The bad news, according to an interview with Jacob Tierney in Variety, is that we might have to wait a little bit.

"It can't be same time next year, because this time last year I'd written five of these, and this time this year I've written zero of them," Tierney said of the first season's November 28 launch in 2025. "So it's going to be a little bit later, but it's still going to be soon." This isn't what any "Heated Rivalry" fan really wants to hear, especially in a streaming landscape where audiences endure painfully and inexplicably long windows between seasons.

Tierney addressed that head-on. "We understand that everybody's goal is to not do two years between seasons. And at the same time, I don't want to put out a rushed sh*tty second season just because the show is very popular," he said. "But we're very aware that our creative partners are enthusiastic and don't want to wait too long. We're getting back to work!" At this rate, we probably won't get new episodes of "Heated Rivalry" until — and this is conjecture on my part — 2027, but it'll be well worth the wait considering how excellent season 1 was thanks to Tierney's work as showrunner and all of the show's central performances. So how exactly did "Heated Rivalry" become one of the year's biggest success stories?

In that Variety profile of Jacob Tierney and the show in general, Casey Bloys — HBO's chairman of content — said that as soon as he sat down and watched episodes of "Heated Rivalry," he immediately wanted HBO Max to serve as the show's network and distributor in the United States (if you're a Canadian fan, you're watching it on Crave, the program's original network). After one of Bloys' colleagues, Jason Butler, who focuses on worldwide programming for the premium network, brought "Heated Rivalry" to his attention, Bloys was all in. "He sent the episodes to me on a Friday, and then on Monday we started negotiating," Bloys said in the article. "It was an easy and very quick 'yes.'" Also, Bloys was astonished that he could even do that: "To tell you the truth, I was surprised that it was even available, because this was about three weeks before it aired."

As for Tierney himself, he told The Hollywood Reporter that "Heated Rivalry" becoming "appointment television" is "deeply surreal" — and even though Tierney's previous shows like "Letterkenny" and "Shoresy" have picked up audiences of their own, neither of them even comes close to the major success of "Heated Rivalry." My esteemed /Film colleague BJ Colangelo has written about this show at length, but if I may echo her words, people are starved for joy in 2025 for a variety of reasons. When the world feels heavy, the big swoony scenes between Shane and Ilya or Kip and Scott create sunshine. Personally, I'm grateful to Tierney for bringing this story to the small screen and I can't wait for season 2 to drop. For now, season 1 is streaming in its entirety on HBO Max.