A lookalike contest for the cultural phenomenon gay hockey show Heated Rivalry has brought together its own adorable queer love story.
Since 2024, many celebrity and character lookalike contests have been popping up in major cities worldwide, paying homage to people such as our very own Paul Mescal, Jeremy Allen White, Zayn Malik, and Timothée Chalamet.
The contest for Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander, the two queer hockey stars in the TV series Heated Rivalry, took place in Washington, DC, in early April.
One of the frontrunners was Felix Eller, a 24-year-old startup founder who is no stranger to comparisons to the fictional Ilya Rozanov, played by Connor Storrie. On his TikTok, multiple fans begged him to imitate a Russian accent, and when he was invited to the lookalike contest, he didn’t hesitate.
There, he met Aram Matagi, who entered the competition as a lookalike for Shane Hollander. Matagi is a 22-year-old who was invited by a coworker, noting that his friends had, on multiple occasions, compared him to the character played by Hudson Williams.
What began as a playful rivalry turned into a love story when the pair went viral for kissing at the event and then went on to win the entire contest.
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Eller told People that he thought the kiss felt special from the start and realised he didn’t want the relationship to end with the contest.
Since then, Eller and Matagi have gone on an adorable first date at a café for brunch, spending more than eight hours together by the end of it, even being recognised and offered free treats.
The pair, keeping to the hockey theme that got them together in the first place, even went to a Professional Women’s Hockey League game in Boston.
The lookalike contest brought them both a surge in social media fame, making them icons of the Heated Rivalry fandom. It’s safe to say the show has been a cultural reset, empowering queers and even sparking real-life love stories before our very eyes.
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