‘Heated Rivalry’ Season 2 Theory: Why It Should End With This ‘Long Game’ Moment
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Long Game book.]
It’s safe to say that Heated Rivalry has become a full-blown obsession since its TV debut in late November 2025, and with the promise of Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov’s (Connor Storrie) romance continuing with Season 2, and potentially a third, we can’t help but imagine their onscreen future.
First introduced on the pages of Rachel Reid’s steamy Game Changers series, in the second and sixth books, a.k.a. Heated Rivalry and The Long Game, there’s plenty of source material to mine for where the duo’s story will head next. Considering how faithful Heated Rivalry‘s episodes were to the book, theories about where Season 2 could end have already started to sprout.
Jacob Tierney has signed on to adapt Reid’s The Long Game for Season 2 of the Canadian series, which streams stateside on HBO Max. While he and stars Williams and Storrie are signed on for a third season, it has yet to be officially announced. While Tierney has confirmed he’ll bring The Long Game‘s story to screen in Season 2, it’s still unclear if the plot could be split, making room for a continuation in a third season.
Below, we’re breaking down what we know about Heated Rivalry Season 2, and sharing a theory about where and why it should end on a certain book moment if showrunner Jacob Tierney splits the story for another season.
Crave / HBO Max
How should Heated Rivalry Season 2 end if it splits up The Long Game story?
In The Long Game, the story of Shane and Ilya picks up a few seasons down the line, with Ilya playing for the Ottawa Centaurs, and Shane continuing his run with the Montreal Voyageurs (Metros in the show). While their romance remains a secret from the public, they’re out to their closest confidantes and manage to spend as much time together, overseeing their charity, which was teased in Season 1.
While the couple is officially committed to one another, the toll of keeping their secret weighs on Ilya to the point of depression, although a few other factors are involved. This leads to some understandable tension in their relationship, but when Ilya travels for an away game, and his plane catches fire, all negativity is forgotten as it puts their circumstance into perspective.
Ilya sends messages to Shane through Instagram, thinking they might be the last words he’ll ever pass on to him before he dies in a crash. Thankfully, this isn’t the case, and Ilya lands, allowing for the couple to grow even stronger, and ultimately pushes Shane to make the leap and ask Ilya to marry him. It’s a deeply romantic moment from the book and would make a great ending if The Long Game is split in two.
The book itself continues on to track Ilya and Shane’s plans for the future, the circumstances of their coming out publicly as a couple, the resulting fallout and changes in their hockey careers, and eventually their wedding, which is plenty of plot to fill a season in and of itself.
Why should Heated Rivalry Season 2 end with the proposal?
Ultimately, this is merely a theory that the story will be divided in half, but I’ve seen some theories suggesting the plane crash would be a good endpoint to Shane and Ilya’s story in Season 2, and that just won’t do. This is a romance story! Romance doesn’t end with doom and gloom; it’s in the business of delivering happy endings (innuendo optional).
If Jacob Tierney’s focus on queer joy has been any indication, this isn’t a series that will leave fans hanging with uncertainty and stress. There’s already enough of that in the real world, and romance stories are meant to be an escape from such harsh realities.
What do you think about Heated Rivalry‘s upcoming adaptation of The Long Game? Let us know your theories and takes in the comments section, and stay tuned for more on Season 2 as it takes shape.
Heated Rivalry, Season 2, TBA, Crave & HBO Max
