We were hosting a tournament and a team was using a strategy for their autonomous where they must hold their robot before the match and then they release the robot right before autonomous begins. When looking at rule <R4> it doesn’t specifically say you are not allowed to touch the robot before the match. However, we feel that the common sense ruling would be that they are not able to use this practice. Would this be the correct ruling?
Your common sense is spot on. Teams are not allowed to touch their robot at the start of the Match. Typically the referees will ask all teams to get their hands out of the field prior to Match. This duration can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.