Thanks for starting the conversation, I think it's really something worth talking about and a very important subject.

From my point of view, Chase is a very reactive mode. If your teammate crashes, you instantly need to adapt to the situation and decide what to do next. The further the round goes, the more stressful the decisions become as you know you're running out of time. You might want to fail a relay on purpose or wait for your teammate based on the calculations you do. And even though there is no real team-to-team interaction in the sense that you can't directly affect your opponent's driving, you still do a lot of strategic decisions based on how your opponent is playing. These are the main things that make the mode different from most others, as it's not only about mechanical skill but also about strategy and decision-making.

The reason why we decided to allow shortcuts, or "any route to the next checkpoint", is because we wanted to add another element of strategy to the mode. Nearly all of the known cuts are very risky, and mostly only usable in the final lap if you're behind, as you might completely ruin your whole round if you fail them. The ones you mentioned are very hard to pull off, and often you end up having less speed that might punish your team later in the round. For example the cut by Marius on Impulse - he was very lucky to get over the wall perfectly on the first try and actually saved time for his team, but he was unable to catch up afterwards. That makes the cut, with some others, very situational. Of course cuts are often seen as cheating - especially in a competitive format - but I think Chase is a perfect mode to observe how alternative routes work in competitive games.

The important thing is that these cuts are not too overpowered. The general checkpoint distance is around 5-8 seconds, so saving more than 1-2 seconds per cut is very unlikely in these maps. If there's some cut that's way too easy to do and saves a lot of time, we'll look into blocking it, but I think right now this rule will make the mode a bit more dynamic and also more exciting to watch. The mode is still fresh and I'm sure there is a lot to improve. We should try to explore the possibilities with the mode, both in map design and driving, while trying to make communication and decision making an important aspect of it.

Hey guys ! I've just seen in the rules this line :
[b][u]"1.6 Routes : You can use any route to reach the next checkpoint - however, you must complete checkpoints in the intended order."[/u][/b]

It's rules, I don't have to interfer with it but this is really disturbing. I mean, what if you win by doing a cut (win a match, not just a point).
By cut I'm talking about any routes, faster than the real one, that is not intended by the mapper. There is currently 5 cuts and it might be more, I'll explain everything.
[u]Cut on Inter.mittent[/u] : [i]Last cp to finish[/i] -> Go on the grass at the last right turn on white blocks. Hit the wall and go on the alternative (or secret ?) finish. Around 1/2 chance to do it and save 1 up to 2 seconds.
[u]Cut on Etenteich[/u] : [i]Just at the start, cut on the right[/i]. Everyone is doing it at start but when you have speed, players tends to take the good way.
[u]Cut on Aluckylucky[/u] : [i]Last cp to finish[/i] -> Jump on the left before the U-Turn into the finish. Really easy and save about 3 seconds.
[u]Cut on AlternativeCurrent[/u] : [i]cp1 to cp2[/i] -> Do a big drift to the right while you take the cp and jump over the dirt route, aiming at the next cp. This one is really hard and save around 1 or even 2 seconds if you're lucky. (Yeah at this point it's luck)
[u]Cut on Twister[/u] : [i]On the last cp[/i] -> Take a wide line on the right before the cp and jump over the wall. A bit hard (easier with practice) and save 3 seconds if your wheels dont touch the wall because you dont take the 360° turn.

That is all about what I found during this week on the matchmaking server but then I watched that : http://www.twitch.tv/dignitasspam/v/25254735?t=03h13m35s
Marius took the cp where he respawns as last to be the first on the next cp after the cut. That worked well, shorty managed to reach us (he gained around 0.5sec). Seriously, this idea was sick. I'm the kind of player that try to find these things but this never came to my mind.
So now, think about it. Imagine all the possibilities that a such cut exists, on all maps ? Okay, you can only do that on the last lap and it only saves less than 1 second in better cases but I think it breaks the "fair-play". Once again, what could happen if a team win by doing that ? Applause because it's great ? But at the end, all teams will have to do such a trick to stay in the lead.

Since the beginning of TM, cuts aren't allowed in cups with prize money because it's not what we should reward. What we could think about doing cut in matches ? "[i]Yeah, they play for money, it's ok if they cut, it's rules[/i]". Only the Zerator TM Cup allow cut, but you'll agree that this cup is pretty uncommon and different.

My mind is splited in two half. On one hand I would like to do these cuts in match to save the point. In the other hand I don't want to play like that, that's not fair.

If you need help to fix all the maps I will help.
Thanks for reading, I just want to avoid problems that could happen later.