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Hollanov: Take Daily As Required (and an Update on my Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov Avatars in Second Life)

Ryan Schultz
I forget exactly how or when I found this piece of Heated Rivalry fan art, but I love it.

Hollanov is the name of the ship (relationship) between Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. It’s shorthand which covers all the fan-created works inspired by the hit television series Heated Rivalry, based on the Game Changers series of gay hockey romance novels by Rachel Reid.

On December 31st, 2025, I wrote on my blog:

And so it was, that my Second Life freebie fashionista friend and partner in crime, whom I only know by their avatar name, Dreamer Pixelmaid, messaged me via Discord and asked me if I had watched Heated Rivalry yet. I had not. (Tonight I am finishing my second rewatch. I am hooked.)

…

It turns out that Dreamer and I not only have a shared interest in ferreting out fabulous Second Life freebies and bargains (something we both happen to be very good at!); we also shared an interest in same-sex romance fan fiction! Soon we were exchanging links to YouTube videos, Tumblr posts, and podcast links, all to do with the outsized reaction which a small Canadian TV show about a gay romance in the professional hockey world (actually, not one but two such romances) was causing, both among the gays and the straights.

Here is a zoom-out of all the pictures stored in the Photo Library on my iPad. Ever since Dreamer Pixelmaid told me about Heated Rivalry in late December 2025, 99.99% of my saved pictures are Hollanov fan art! I am legitimately obsessed.

Also, I now have well over 400 Heated Rivalry-inspired fanfics (fan-written fiction) bookmarked to read. I usually spend an hour or two lying on the sofa reading through recommended HR fanfics, some of which are good, and a few of which are among the best writing I’ve ever read. (I usually read lying on the sofa, to rest my neck and shoulders if they are aching. Oh, and the best place to find this fanfic is a website called Archive of Our Own, or AO3 for short. Here’s a link to get you started, of the most popular Heated Rivalry/Game Changers fanfic sorted by popularity. You’ll need to set up your own AO3 account to read some of these. Enjoy!)

In addition to fan art and fan fiction, there are many people who create fan-edited compilations of scenes from the television show. These video artists usually set their fan videos to music, but in the following example (one I love to rewatch), the fan-edit was made to a spoken-word poem by actress Helena Bonham Carter.

Source: Wild Geese by Mary Oliver (read by Helena Bonham Carter)
Fan-edit created by heated-rivalry-two-souls (posted to Tumblr)

Wild geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

In other words, in only eight months, Heated Rivalry has inspired people to create many, many Hollanov art, videos, and stories. I haven’t seen anything like this personally, since Brokeback Mountain sparked a similar explosion of fan fiction, almost exactly 20 years ago. (I even created some alternate-universe BBM Jack/Ennis movie posters, using my rudimentary PhotoShop skills! So you could say that Hollanov is not my first rodeo…pun intended. 😉)

As to why a gay hockey TV show has led to this level of obsession, a social psychologist tries to explain, in a more scientific way, why Heated Rivalry has had such an impact (10-minute YouTube video; she also has a whole channel diving into other aspects of the show from a social psychology perspective):

Well, as you might already know, I have been using my 19 years of experience in creating and styling avatars to create Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov avatars in the virtual world of Second Life. I wrote about an earlier version of them back in January, but since then, I have been able to obtain much better head skins for both Shane and Ilya, and I have been tinkering around with the face and body sliders a bit more, so now they look like this:

And here are some pictures and videos I have taken of them in the past few months:

The cuddle animation in this video is from the Dutchie sofa (worth every Linden dollar spent!)
This tender animation is from the menu of options on this bed from Dutchie.

My most recent Hollanov creation in SL is the following work-in-progress video (silent, 1:14), in which I show various skating animations from two different AOs. Unfortunately, I still cannot seem to find any kind of hockey jersey that fits well over these hockey pants from Meva (the only ones I could find on the entire grid and in the Second Life Marketplace). So we have a topless Ilya skating around (I’m quite sure this is a sexual fantasy of Shane’s in some Heated Rivalry fanfic I have yet to read!).

Ladies, gentlemen, and fabulus people of all genders—Ilya Rozanov on ice!

UPDATE August 14th, 2026: I found a set of static hockey poses with a hockey stick on the Second Life Marketplace, and I took some more pictures of Ilya Rozanov at the Brooks Arena within the Chamonix City Winter Sports Complex. I probably will need to recruit some more avatars to actually create a believable hockey scene with multiple players, but hey, it’s a start! POSE AND ANIMATION DESIGNERS: Season two of Heated Rivalry will be released starting April 2027. Please please please make some hockey poses and animations! There is next to nothing out there. This was the only set of hockey poses I could find on the SL Marketplace. Thanks!

I have been posting these pictures and videos to Primfeed (the Twitter of Second Life), as well as to four different Hollanov fan Discord servers of which I am a member. And I even resurrected my ancient, long-dormant Tumblr account to be able to post them to the thriving 31,000-member Hollanov community there:

Below is an example post of my Shane and Ilya Second Life pictures to the Hollanov community on Tumblr

Of course, the Hollanov fans (who call themselves “loons,” IYKYK) know next-to-nothing about Second Life, and many of the SL folks, who have not watched Heated Rivalry or read the books, are probably mystified as to why I am so often posting shots of these two fictional hockey players to my Primfeed. What can I say? My two obsessions have collided. I might need to create a very niche, very specialized 12-step group for myself… 😜

So, now you know how I have been keeping myself busy when I have been feeling anxious and overwhelmed and need an escape: enjoying Hollanov fan fiction, fan art, and fan-made music videos, and busy dressing, posing and taking pictures and videos of my Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov avatars! It’s been a blessed escape to enjoy other HR fans’ works, or to get lost in the creative flow of Second Life for an hour or two.

Thank you to Rachel Reid for writing the series of novels, and thanks to Jacob Tierney for making such a wonderful TV show from Rachel’s books. Heated Rivalry has inspired me to move forward in so many areas of my life. I’m so grateful for the push it has given me!

UPDATE 4:15 p.m. August 7th, 2026: I’ve been asked to provide the full styling credits for both the Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander avatars (please note that this is an update from my January blog post about them, before I bought new head skins for both):

Ilya Rozanov Styling Credits:

Shane Hollander Styling Credits:

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