Ring Toss Solution
How It Works
Teams try to make digital numbers by carrying/tossing a ring along segments between bases. Players must plan their positions carefully to force the referee out of the way, and must use caution when making complex digits (e.g. 8) to not first complete simpler digits (e.g. 1) which immediately score and end the formation. Of course, teams don't really know the rules, and must discover them by trial-and-error. Informative penalties are intended to help teams learn the rules.
The Ring and the Referee
- Teams of three take the field with one ring
- Players may not share a base with other players or the Referee
- Each team gets 3 attempts to create a formation before they are retired
- Formations consist of an arbitrary number of plays, and is complete when a scoring formation has been achieved or can no longer be achieved
- Plays consist of 5 second intervals during which the ring must move along exactly one segment
- Each player must begin and end each play on a base
- Each player may move along up to one base path during each play
- The ring may not touch the ground
- Before a play, if exactly one base adjacent to the referee is open, the referee moves to that base.
Formations and scoring
- The field represents a 12-segment display for making digital numbers
- A formation begins with all segments unlit
- Scoring formations must be oriented toward the scorekeeper (to differentiate between 6 and 9)
- If the ring is carried between two bases then the segment becomes "lit"
- Lit segments may not be "unlit"
- If the ring is tossed between two bases then the segment does not change state
- Play begins and proceeds until the formation is complete, failed, or a penalty is called
- Valid Formation (score given): Forms a valid number from 1-26. The scorekeeper will announce a score based on the position of that letter in the answer word.
- Invalid Formation: Not a number or number outside of 1-26 (0, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, 91)
- Penalty (as described below)
Solve Path
Generally speaking, teams will bumble around a bit to figure out how the ring moves, then get "Invalid Formation," "Repeated Segment" and "Failure to Advance Formation" a bunch of times while they figure out that they're trying to make numbers. 1 is trivial, and they'll probably get it without trying. 2-9 can all be done when they figure out how to move the ref once, and they don't actually need to toss. (The trick is to not make 1 or 7 accidentally.) Two-digit numbers require tossing and some trickiness- since the play will end if they finish either digit, they have to partially finish one digit, toss to do the other, then go back to the first one. (See below) When teams know what they're doing, they'll be able to collect the data:
| Formation | 1 |
| Letter | A |
| Score | 2 |
Putting the letters in the right order yields the answer FARMHOUSE.
Solution
FARMHOUSE