I've now played Ronnie award winner (never gonna get tired of that) Contenders with two very different groups.

Both times under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol. Still there's ne'er a rpg in existence that aint improved with booze ;-)

Group A consisted of Me (duh), Amy (my sis), Ad (her boyfriend), Rie (my fiance). None of the others had ever role-played before.

Group B contained me, Colin, David and Grant. We're all mates from Uni when I helped convert them to the glory of rpgs instead of foolish so-called 'healthy' pursuits. We compensate for Islam's abstinence.

Setting Both times we decided upon the setting as a group and I have to say I think this really helped draw people into the game. So, I know what you were saying Ron in the Ronnies feedback, that basically this version of play is already covered in the mechanics (and will earn kudos when discovered) and that the game would benefit from a narrower setting of one era or country to intially appeal, I find this too narrow myself. For group A we switched to Muay-Thai kickboxing in 1970s Manilla under the heel of dictatorship - and with that group the game worked all the better for it. For group B we settled on Las Vegas also in the seventies. I've always really loved the player input in background creation in games like MLWM and Dogs. I reckon that boxing (or professional martial arts in general) is narrow enough to focus the colour of the game. This is backed up by the feedback received from Graham Walmsay - Dirty Fucking Freaks may have just replaced kill puppies for satan as the best rpg name ever.This decision has nothing to do with my laziness regarding researching historical detail...
Incidentally the setting had very little impact on actual play - except for Col's Contender - failed astronaut Buzz Allgin; botched the moon mission and the Ruskies got there first. Which brings us neatly to-

Characters
Group A:
Amy played Li Young Chow, a plucky and optimistic young fighter, daughter of an American soldier and a local woman.
Connection: After years of uncertainty, Li has finally heard from her father. He wants her and her mother to come and live in the US with him - can Li can get enough money together for the flights?

Ad played Adaski American Brutus, a Russian orphan abandoned in a dustbin outside the national boxing arena - found and adopted by the caretaker Qrys Manbigi.
Connection: Qrys has another son who needs heart surgery. Qrys also owes a loanshark money for his son's previous op.

Rie played Si-Su Quon Noir  A suffering but stoic local girl trying to provide for her sick mother.
Connection: Her ailing mother. She needs a wheelchair for any hope of mobility.

I played Jose DuPre A disgraced former socialite ostracised from his family by his association with Carlos, the black-sheep - Jose's drug dealing (and addicted) brother.
Connection: Jose cannot give up on Carlos - there's still a way back for both of them - but there's the matter of those drug debts and dodgy deals to be addressed.

Group B

Colin played Buzz Allgin unable to forgive himself for accidentally hitting the Take-off-again button and losing the space race for the US, Buzz has fallen back on hurtin' people to get by.
Connection: Buzz's former co-pilot Neil Barnstorm has taken badly to the bottle. Buzz owes it to him to sort it out.

David played Pat O'Connocagh - After 2 generations of O'Connocagh's serving in the NYPD, an "anti-Micks" inclusive policy meant Pat failed to become a police officer and took to the road as a fighter.
Connection: Pat is enthralled by a mafia Don's daughter - Maria Del Vekio. Can he win her affection?

Grant played Boxcar Willie real name possibly Peter, Boxcar is a travelling hobo riding from town to town by way of boxcars (they're freight carriages right?) and fighting for whatever he can get.
Connection: Seems like the only person who hasn't forgot Willie's a human being is Lola, a lady of the night. She's in all kinds of trouble.

I played Rico Fernandez - fast Latino boxer and illegal immigrant trying to make some money for his family in Mexico.
Connection: Family back home living in poverty.

Play
Interesting play note, group A with no entrenched Sim/D&D style thinking picked up the structure of play and narration quicker than the role-players. Astute Forgites will not be surprised by this. Intoxication levels were pretty even.

Game Mechanics
I think the NPC boxer templates are invaluable, most players prefer to test the fight system against an NPC before going up against another player. However, the NPC templates only really need in-ring traits as Hope, Rep & Cash are irrelevant to them.

Training is hugely important, I'm glad I can say this in response the concern justly voiced by Roger in his in-depth analysis of Contenders. One point can make all the difference, especially when a NPC improves when a PC does.

Street style dirty tactics in a fight are very effective, I've upped the warning cost to 2 VPs, the -1 Rep suggested by Ron is effective (and staying enforced) for PCs but not for NPCs.

The scene structure seems to work really well, both the fixed scenes and the Trollbabe style approach of finding the conflicts within after starting a miscellaneous scene.

I found it helpful to deal each player a 4 of a kind prior to each fight then each player could lay face-down the suit corresponding to their chosen tactics.

The fight scenes seemed to go really well, everyone grasped the mechanics easily, there were plenty of tactics & tension and every result is possible (though no-one risked a DQ after two warnings).
One issue that did come up is whether a fight scene should count as an appearance for both Contenders, I think, with the benefit of hindsight, that it would be simpler if it did count as a scene for each.

I only played one session with group A and two sessions with group B, so we're still some way from endgame, however it's clear from the start that a contender's connections are staked on the endgame, so I'm not sure how any additional connection threat mechanics would work.

Game Highlights
Adaski wins his first fight by KO in round 1!
Si-Su buys her mother a wheelchair only to discover her health problems are far worse than previously thought.
Li's positive attitude and devotion to training leads to a 4:1 Hope:Pain ratio - she's going to America dammit.

Rico threatens a foreman exploiting hispanic workers - and gets done over by pick-ax handle wielding heavies.
Pat gets KO'd by the stocky Colombian Carloz Diego.
Boxcar, after winning a bare knuckle brawl, loses on points to Rico in his first real match "Wi' ropes an' all". This was the only PvP match.
Buzz earns some quick cash taking hardware to area 51...

All in all I'm really pleased with how the playtests went and I'm looking forward to writing up a new version.
All feedback is greatly appreciated - plus check out my website if you're a fan of indie-rpgs.

I'll leave you with the quote of Contenders so far, feel free to leave your own if you play a game. It'll take a lot to beat the NPC voiced by Col -
"Gypsy Bob will take no pummeling. Gypsy Bob will eat your feet!"

Cheers,
Joe