Why is immediately stopping the code while it is not supposed to?

I'm making a round system for a game and I made a game length variable to indicate when the time is up but right when it starts the game runs it even though there are 43 seconds left, Can anyone help me?

local gameLength = 43

for i = gameLength,0,-1 do

		for x, player in pairs(playersAlive) do
			if player then

				character = player.Character

				if not character then
					-- Left the game
				else
					if character:FindFirstChild("GameTag") then
						-- They are still alive
					else
						-- They are dead
						table.remove(playersAlive,x)
						print(player.Name.." Has been removed!")
					end
				end
			else
				table.remove(playersAlive,x)
				print(player.Name.." Has been removed!")
			end
		end

if i == 0 then
	status.Value = "Times up!"
	wait(2)
	break
end

player is not a valid statement. You need to define it. You could try adding, local player = game:GetService("Players")