Fans of the seemingly overnight sensation Heated Rivalry have begun making pilgrimages to shooting locations around Canada, including the Sleeman Centre in Guelph, Ontario, where the cast and crew shot every hockey sequence featured in the show in just 10 days. “We normally don’t book anything into April and May,” the arena’s manager, Ryan Giles, told Variety, before explaining that because Guelph Storm didn’t make the playoffs in 2025, the show was able to use the arena to film. Giles estimates that hundreds of fans have visited the arena since the show’s premiere to take photos or purchase merchandise, and he has also seen the evidence on TikTok.
“There’s a lot of them, of people that are just showing up and wanting to take pictures around the building‚” Giles explained. Fortunately for those fans, the rink’s team is happy to provide them with a quick tour, though Giles notes that diehard fans would easily be able to orient themselves based on what they’ve seen in the show. Heated Rivalry, which was created by Letterkenny’s Jacob Tierney for Canadian streamer Crave and picked up by HBO Max in the U.S., has already been renewed for a second season after becoming a surprise global hit following its debut in November.
