Ring It Up!, released on 8 September 2012, was the 2012–2013 robotics competition for

FIRST Tech Challenge FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), formerly known as FIRST Vex Challenge, is a robotics competition for students in grades 7–12 to compete head to head, by designing, building, and programming a robot to compete in an alliance format against other te ...

. In the competition, two alliances, each consisting of two teams, competed to score plastic rings on a set of pegs aligned in a three-dimensional

tic-tac-toe Tic-tac-toe (American English), noughts and crosses (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), or Xs and Os (Canadian English, Canadian or Hiberno-English, Irish English) is a paper-and-pencil game for two players who ta ...

board.FTC 2012-2013 Game Manual Part 2
USFIRST.org. Retrieved 2012-10-27. Ring It Up! is the eighth FTC challenge. More than 2400 teams competed worldwide,What Events And Teams Are in My Area?
USFIRST.org. Retrieved 2013-3-18. surpassing the number of competitors in the previous year's Bowled Over! challenge.

Alliances

In each match, the four teams competing were organised into red and blue alliances. The members of an alliance competed together to earn points. Alliances were selected randomly prior to the start of each competition.

Field

The field for the competition was a square measuring 12 feet by 12 feet, which could be constructed by teams for practising prior to competitions.Ring It Up Build Guide
USFIRST.org. Retrieved 2012-10-27. In the centre of the field there is a vertically constructed set of pegs, which are arranged in a three-by-three grid (as a

board). Along the edges of the field, there are other pegs, each of which contains a set of six red or blue rings, which can be harvested and scored by the corresponding alliance. The field is also divided into two triangular sides, one red and one blue.

Scoring

There were three sections to the game: the Autonomous Period, the Driver-Controlled (or Tele-Operated) Period, and the End Game. The criteria for scoring was different during each segment.Game Manual Part 1
USFIRST.org. Retrieved 2012-10-27. ;Autonomous Period In the Autonomous Period, robots could run autonomously for thirty seconds.

Infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

beacons were placed randomly on a peg in the tic-tac-toe board prior to the start of the match, but after autonomous programs have been selected. Each robot was allowed to begin with one specially-marked autonomous ring. Unscored rings were removed by

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

s after the end of the Autonomous Period. An infrared sensor is available to aid in autonomously locating the IR beacon. ;Driver-Controlled Period During the two-minute Driver-Controlled Period, teams could use standard

gamepad A gamepad is a type of video game controller held in two hands, where the fingers (especially thumbs) are used to provide input. They are typically the main input device for video game consoles. Features Some common additions to the standar ...

controllers, each with two

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Also known as the control column, it is the principal control devic ...

s, to operate their robots. ;End Game In FTC, the final thirty seconds of the Driver-Controlled Period are referred to as the End Game. During the Ring It Up! End Game, teams were permitted to attempt to score points for special tasks, but these tasks could not begin before the start of End Game.

Advancement criteria

During tournaments and championships, match wins did not necessarily take priority over other advancement criteria. As in all FTC challenges, the winner of the top judged award (the ''Inspire Award'') ranked higher than the winner of the competition-based component (''Winning Alliance Captain''). Winning lesser judged awards (''Think Award'', ''Connect Award'', etc.) also played a part in the advancement order. The criteria for the ''Inspire Award'' are "...match performance, observations made during interviews and in the pit area, and the team’s Engineering Notebook as equal factors...". Criteria for the other awards also include robot design, creativity, innovation, team performance, outreach and enthusiasm. For the Ring It Up! challenge, a new format for qualifying competitions was introduced in the United States regions for

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, and

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. Shorter competitions, called "meets", were held over weekends. Meets were smaller, shorter and more frequent than normal qualifying competitions.Frascella, Vince. "Ring It Up!" FTC 2012-2013 New Jersey Kickoff. Livingston High School, Livingston, NJ. 8 Sept. 2012. Address. This makes the format more accessible for new teams, in addition to providing more opportunities for structured practice in the company of other local teams. They were designed for participation more similar to participation in organised sport at the high school age.Johnson, Ke
Introducing the FTC League/Meet format
The Official FTC Blog. 23 October 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-28.

Notes

{{FIRST 2012 in robotics