Guild Lockdowns: There Aren't Enough / Possible Solutions

After the first week of Lockdown, the number of teams playing significantly dropped. The only guilds really able to play Lockdown as a team are the ones that have the sheer guild size to field a team; thus smaller guilds are kept out of the fun. On top of this, the same guilds repeatedly play each other without any opportunity to play another team.
What I am suggesting is 4v4, GvG Lockdowns. You would be surprised by how much easier it is to field a team of 4 as opposed to 6 (for more than just the obvious reasons). PUG matches can be played with 4, why not guild matches as well? With smaller parties being able to join guild Lockdowns, you not only give the smaller guilds a chance to compete regularly, but there would be more teams playing and more variety.
It's a thought at least. Comments?
At european maintime there are more or less next to no guild teams available...

Good idea, I have yet to play a guild game except in preview because my guild only has about 15 members. Small maps are best for 4 v 4 though.
Can't find Lockdown Guild opponents and it's the same for Blast Network, too. Over the last week, there have never been more than 2 teams during "CEST times" and of course the weaker one didn't keep playing for long. Besides allowing for smaller team, I'd love it GvG could fall back on random teams too, if there's not enough guild teams around (like already suggested here: http://forums.spiralknights.com/de/node/24237).

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Too hard to get 6 unbusy people on at once. Blast Network teams are 4, why not Lockdown?

Approved.
It's annoying to get 5 more unbusy people together and there are always teams of only 4 or 5 people waiting on the enemy site.

why not be allowed 2 make our own teams? why is it only guild? why cante we make a team, and let our friends in? lol

Definitely think this could help. Also just coordinating times when guilds can play lockdown with each other could help too, the more people and more guilds that are playing the better. My only question is what will happen to 6v6 guild games?

@Mysticbeam - That would be unfair, since you would play against PUG teams. You would have the coordination of a guild team while playing as a PUG one.
@Paska - My guild has posted all over the zones before, trying to get another team to join a guild match. Even then we could not get a match. 6v6 games would still be around, but they would certainly be less plentiful.
Some facts, based on weeks 1 and 2 of guild Lockdown:
~Knightmare, the guild with the most points in week 1, had more points than all of the top 10 combined in week 2.
~160,000 was the most points held by Knightmare, Guild led week 2 with a little more than 20,000.
~My guild, Gunslinger Priests, had 33,000 points in week 1 and was ranked #8, holding 1.5x as many points as the leader of week 2.
~Overall, I can only estimate that there were as many as 15 or 16 times (don't quote me on that) as many guild matches in week 1 as there were in week 2.
~While guild matches declined, PUG matches became all the more popular; leaderboard scores were up by as much as 20%.
OOO needs to realize that a team of 6 is difficult to field, and now that Lockdown isn't brand new most guilds aren't giving up their spots in FSC to go play a match. We need 4v4 matches.
Keep posting here, guys, and maybe we can get Nick's attention!
-Tri
That would be unfair, since you would play against PUG teams. You would have the coordination of a guild team while playing as a PUG one.
I don't think there's as big a difference as you might think. Random matches are unfair as it is often enough... and most of the guild teams around don't seem to be a lot better than the average random lockdown team. Those are off a lot worse than 20 random teams would be when having only one more experienced guild as an opponent... weaker guild have no chance to learn & get better as a guild team as it is now unless they're very lucky.

Maybe allow "guests" to fill in for empty spots on a guilds' team if they lack enough people to make a full team? It'd promote more people to try it? :x
Hmmm, sounds good! I'd love:
- an "allow friends checkbox" for pvp
- a "waiting for lockdown/blast network" icon similar to gate icons for people in the social tab (with the possibility to join)
Sounds sort of complicated to do though. And a possibility to play against random teams (if there's not enough guild teams) and to play in teams of other sizes (4-6? 4-7?) would still be great additions to that.
Still doesn't look too good... are there any plans to somehow make it work yet?

2 things I've experienced with Guild LD. 1... guilds may not be properly balanced in skill/equipment. 2... guilds go on clockwork expeditions, to earn crowns, rather than play for about 3 (or doubled, at times) Krogmo Coins IF they win.
It doesn't seem very rewarding if you take into account that all the Krogmo buys are fairly pricey. You have to play hundreds of matches to get good things from the Krogmo vendor. Also noting that LD seems to have connection issues for those who don't have computers and such, that are up to OOO's standards. Much like myself. I repeatedly get a driver error every time I try LD, so I don't play it anymore, because I'm just losing 200 crowns for no good reason.
EDIT: Oh shoot.... I didn't "Agree" to what you said. On that note...... I agree. lol

Which is exactly my thought and OP's thought, and what I see is the BIGGEST limitation in having Lockdown guild matches popular.
Why O3 continues to want people to form big guilds, is beyond me. Managing 50+ people cost a lot of time and effort. Fielding six people in the same tier same time slot who want to play Lockdown, are virtually impossible to small guilds.
I agree, my team was in top 10 of all guilds, but now we've been overtaken, and cannot seem to find games to get back in.
Sometimes we cannot even form teams ourselves, as 6 is a lot. I love my guild though, so active. Guess what? Only 60 members!
We still have over 6 on quite a bit. We can do games with 6, but nobody's playing... so even if we have that many on, we still can't play.
4 on 4 would be a great solution imo, as more guilds can and will play. Shouldn't this be in the suggestion section?
Regards,
~Rangerwill~