Portal delays in each spawn area lead to some interesting strategy: Take the 60s portal and gain immediate access to enemy flag, but lose the ability to use that portal for an entire minute. Take the 5s portal and be able to use it frequently, but have to march through the middle to get to the enemy base. An overarching theme is the ability for defenders to quickly catch up with flag-runners. Every route out of the base has a parallel approach defenders can use to catch up to flag-runners. The quickest route is blocked by laserbeams. The middle has a shorter distance route balanced with testitems and slipzone - if you nail it, you'll get through quickly, but if you "slip up," you'll be stuck for a bit.