on quite rare occasion moderators will be absent, if this happens i think you should get an automatic
system (a bot) to turn guest lock on and maybe (if this is needed) to
remove all guests or to turn them into spectators until a mod enters the
game to turn off the bot, upon turning the bot off all changes to the
system done by the bot will be reverted back to the pre-bot stage and all spectators (that were previously guests) will be automatically reverted back to guest status.

Thinking about this in a technical manner the bot would be commissioned if on the message board:

"Azur has left the server"

it will then check the user board and if another player with mod status is on there then it will not ensue (it will know this by how you encode the colours onto players)

as for the reverting of all changes the bot will keep a log of what it has done and then run it in reverse settings

guest lock on, goes to off

The players that have been turned into a spectator will then be turned back via information from the log
 
what i must also add is that the bot must have a timer of say 2 minutes witch will ensue after its checked for moderators (and found none) this will allow for mods to enter the game without finding 41 spectators.

this is just an idea but it will probably help in the long-run