![\"Hudson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/hudson-williams-connor-storrie.jpg\" "\\"Greenwich")
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Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie as seen in \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 on HBO Max.<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of HBO Max<\/p>\n
A much-anticipated \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d look-alike contest took Greenwich Village by storm on Sunday afternoon, garnering dozens of vaguely Japanese- and Slavic-looking men, hundreds of spectators, and millions of online views.<\/p>\n
Contestants Ryan Heffernan and Tyler Gaul walked home with $50 each for their resemblance to Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, respectively, from the wildly popular Canadian TV series, which follows a decade-long love affair between two professional hockey players.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Announced in early January, the event quickly drew attention amidst online fervor for the show and its breakout stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. Some spectators hoped \u2013 to no avail \u2013 that given the contest\u2019s online coverage, Williams and Storrie would make an appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Organizers Katherine Gehring and Charlotte Steinblatt promoted the contest on social media and Partiful, a popular party organizing app. They received 4,975 RSVPs by the day of.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The premise of the trend is simple, adapting to whichever male celebrity has captured the internet\u2019s heart that month. Similar-looking (or overly confident) men gather at a park, the audience votes by shriek, and one look-alike walks home with a cash prize. It\u2019s implied that spectators arrive in hopes of finding their own Shane Hollander or Ilya Rosanov.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Look-alike contests on the rise<\/p>\n
Look-alike contests entered the cultural zeitgeist in October 2024 when nearly 10,000 swarmed Washington Square Park in search of the city\u2019s best Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet dupe. Across major cities, other contests have scouted off-brand Jeremy Allen Whites and Paul Mescals, Pedro Pascals and Glen Powells. Gehrig herself organized Boston\u2019s first major look-alike contests for Tom Holland and Chris Evans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunday marked at least the third quest to find \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d dupes, with one hosted in Boston on Jan. 19 and Sydney on Jan. 31. After Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s encouragement to stay home with a copy of \u201cHeated Rivalry,\u201d Rachel Reid\u2019s 2019 novel on which the series is based, during last weekend\u2019s winter storm, it feels only natural that New York followed suit \u2013 and at the birthplace of the Look-Alike Contest, no less.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The location was short-lived, however, as police quickly shut down the masses that began to descend around the Washington Square Arch at 2 p.m. A confused huddle migrated to the Mercer Playground several blocks away, standing on snowbanks and hanging off fences to catch a glimpse of the show. Logistical difficulties began a week earlier when one of the biggest winter storms in years forced organizers to postpone from Jan. 25 to Feb. 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But while both visibility and temperatures were low \u2013 the forecast showing about 20\u00b0F \u2013 morale remained high as the crowd cheered for their look-alike of choice and chanted for the Shanes and Ilyas to kiss. Contestants seemed highly confident in their resemblance to the characters. Some spectators were less convinced.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community was great,\u201d said one onlooker. \u201cThe so-called look-alikes, maybe not. Someone told them after a couple drinks that they looked like the characters.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of Temu Ilyas. Lackluster at best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie as seen in \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 on HBO Max. Photo courtesy of HBO Max…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2519,44068,52830,52831,9,11,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-120303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-greenwich-village","9":"tag-heated-rivalry","10":"tag-heated-rivalry-look-alike-contest","11":"tag-look-alike-contest","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}