Hmm... In 2004 team 1241 had a great robot that would catch all the balls as they were dropped from above. Another team picked up one of the giant double-points balls and stuffed it into their ball hopper, preventing them from catching any of the small balls. This was not considered against the spirit of the game, or rules... and the real example of G.P. was how 1241 responded to a brilliant and innovative move by their opponent.
In this year's game it would strike me that your robot should be able to survive having a ringer dropped on it... without either inadvertently taking possession of the ringer or having a key mechanism disabled by the ringer.
Mind you, the Q&A forum and competition officials DO take precidence over my opinion.
Jason