[maxnz]

Originally Posted by jijiglobe

My favorite idea is some variant of the cheval de frise. Most teams that can cross the portcullis can cross the cheval de frise, and, if not, they probably never got the portcullis picked against them anyway.

I'm tempted to say that we should just not have a portcullis, seeing as how it was rarely picked at champs. The only time I can remember seeing a portcullis was Einstien QF3M3, but that only happened because both alliances forgot to put in defense selections. (in our defense, Einstein is weird, and the timing is different from other fields)

Anyway, a defense that's like cheval but backwards, or all the quarters are attached together so that they move in unison seems like the best solution to me. Keep in mind that, if any new defenses are added, teams will not be able to test/write autonomous routines for them, so it's really only fair if it's basically identical to a portcullis, or a cheval.

A cheval de frise that is connected together and moves in unison probably would work best. It could be angled down towards the courtyard so you have to use a cheval routine to cross from the neutral zone to the courtyard, but crossing the other way doesn't require any extra work.