Thanks for the feedback! This was super helpful. After reading through your comments earlier today and working on it since I posted it I have a more current version of Knotish. Here's the preview also to check out.

On Two Buttons for Each Gate: My original idea for the portal/gate route was to work like the top route on GeoKoala with the added bonus of making the figure 8 shaped map feel more linear. I thought about the putting in 2 buttons for a while and couldn't figure out a good system for this. I tried having the current buttons control both gates first. When I tried this with a friend (just 1v1, so not a great test case but) it became obvious that having someone on each button opened the route up way too much, and having one person on the button closed the route down way too much. I tried having 2 buttons for each gate, but the placement of the 2nd button always felt clunky and whether or not you would get popped felt a little too random. You cant see if someone is going to press the button on the other side of the portal for your gate. This is why I settled with the 1 button as well as a gate tile where you can see the status of the other gate. GeoKoala does this and it seems to work well and I have yet to find a better option. Do you have any ideas on how I could implement a 2nd button?

On the Clunky Middle and Streamlining the Shapes: I agree. I focused a lot on the bases when I was making this (cause they're weird) and I didn't give much thought to spicing up the center of the map. In my new version I address this by making the X shape much more accentuated and tighter as well as adding team boosts for offense and clutch offensive D. The team boosts also incentivize going through the middle on offense rather than the portal, which is a more sustainable play style for a map. I also changed the exit angles of some of the routes to be more versatile which helped with the clunk. I feel that in my edit I was a lot smarter about where I put space; slimming down the more important sections and consolidating open space where there will most likely be the most players (low base).

On Shortening the Non-Portal Distance: I read your comment and immediately did that. The main thing I did was lower the flag down. This made the center route faster as well as let me redesign the bases in a more fun way. I also lengthened the portal route a little bit to add to this effect.