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Heated Rivalry removed major Ilya and Scott book scene from the TV show

8 January 2026, 16:50 | Updated: 9 January 2026, 10:30

By Sam Prance

The fan-favourite gay club scene was cut from Heated Rivalry season 1.

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Heated Rivalry is loyal to the book it's based on but a fan-favourite Scott and Ilya gay club scene didn't make the cut.

As soon as Crave announced that they were adapting Rachel Reid's Heated Rivalry into a series, fans were desperate to see their favourite scenes from the book come to life. From Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov's initial meeting to many of the sex scenes, showrunner Jacob Tierney has made great efforts to do justice to the source material.

However, one scene that doesn't appear in the series involves Ilya and fellow queer ice hockey player Scott Hunter.

Read more: Heated Rivalry creator reveals the one type of sex scene you will never see in the show
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If you've read the Heated Rivalry books, you will already know that the first book, Game Changer, tells the love story of ice hockey captain Scott Hunter and smoothie barista Kip Grady. As for the series, Heated Rivalry explores Scott and Kip's romance in a bottle episode which tells most of their story from the book.

The tv show then wraps up Scott and Kip's story from the novels in episode 5. In the final scene, we see Scott come out publicly with Kip at the end of a game. However, what we don't see is that Game Changes also featured a major scene with a Scott Hunter night at a local gay bar.

In the iconic scene, Ilya shows up at the gay bar and meets up with Scott and Kip there. Not only that but Ilya tells Scott: "Is good. What you did. It will be good for…others.”

On top of that, Ilya tells Shane about this interaction in the Heated Rivalry book when they are hanging out at the cottage.

Shane and Ilya in Heated Rivalry. Picture: Crave

Neither Jacob Tierney nor the cast have explained why the scene was cut but it was likely due to time and the show focusing more on Shane and Ilya than Scott and Kip. However, it helps show just how much of an impact Scott's coming out had on Shane and Ilya's relationship. Without it, Ilya would have never gone to the cottage.

Fingers crossed Heated Rivalry season 2 finds a way for Ilya and Scott to crossover more. Manifesting a future gay club moment!