I am receiving an error that has nothing to do with my script and what it is doing. Why?

Object must be a member of workspace before loading animation

It is a little long but I will add a comment pointing to where the error is. Look for stars.

wait(5) -- wait for players character to load

local intermission = 10
local timeConst = 120 -- this is the time of the match. It makes sure that the time is always correct
local matchTime = timeConst -- 2 minutes
local firstRun = true
local message = Instance.new("Message")

local ss = game:WaitForChild("ServerStorage")
local gear = ss:WaitForChild("Gear")
local maps = ss:WaitForChild("Maps")

local plrs = game:WaitForChild("Players")
local teams = game.Teams

while wait(1) do
    if firstRun == true then
        print("First Run") -- debug
        wait(1)
        firstRun = false
    end

    while true do
        print("First Loop Initiated")
        contestants = {}
        wait(1) -- allow time for all contestants to load
        for k,plr in pairs (game.Players:GetChildren()) do
            if plr and plr.Character then
                print("player and char")
                local humanoid = plr.Character:FindFirstChild("Humanoid")
                if humanoid and humanoid.Health > 0 then
                    print("Humanoid")
                    table.insert(contestants, plr)
                end
            end
        end
        if #contestants >= 2 then
            print("contestants")
            wait(1)
            break
        else
            print('waiting for players')
        end
        wait(1)
    end

    ----------------[LoadMap]--------------------
    --local randomMap = maps[math.random(1, #maps)]:Clone()
    --randomMap.Parent = game.workspace
    -- The above is commented to be fixed later.
    -- For now I will use the map loading system that only allows one map
    ss.Maps.ForestMap.Parent = workspace
    print("Map should be loaded")
    ---------------------------------------------

    --------------------[Intermission]------------------------------
    while wait(1) do
        print("Intermission Loop Initiated")
        if intermission ~= 0 then
            intermission = intermission - 1
            message.Parent = workspace
            message.Text = "Game begins in: "..intermission..""
        elseif intermission <= 0 then
            message.Parent = nil
            wait(0.5)
            break
        end
    end
    ---------------------------------------------------------------

    local numofplayers = game.Players.NumPlayers -- loop once for every player
    local looptime = numofplayers -- This may be a bit buggy. 

    while wait(1) do
        if looptime > 0 then
            looptime = looptime - 1

        end
        for _, player in pairs (contestants) do 
            print("Preparing character for match")
            if player and player.Character then
                print("Player and player's char loaded")
                -- I removed the torso variable as I couldn't see it's point
                local humanoid = player.Character:FindFirstChild("Humanoid")
                if humanoid then
                    print("Humanoid detection")
                    humanoid.Health = 100 -- Not sure what the point of this is
                end
                matchTag = Instance.new("StringValue")
                matchTag.Name = "MatchTag"
                player.TeamColor = teams.Battling.TeamColor
                deathScript = ss:WaitForChild("DeathScript"):Clone()
                deathScript.Disabled = false    
            end
        end
        if looptime <= 0 then
            looptime = numofplayers
            break
        end
    end

    --  ********The loop below is when the error occurs. ******* --
    -- the use of looptime is not a preferable method but the only thing I could think of to do what I needed.
    while looptime > 0 do
        wait()
        print('Loading character')
        for i, p in pairs (contestants) do
            p:LoadCharacter()
            matchTag.Parent = p.Character -- If the player dies the matchtag will be removed automatically. Saves a little work for me.
            deathScript.Parent = p.Character
            local allGear = gear:GetChildren()
            local randomGear = allGear[math.random(1, #allGear)]:Clone()
            randomGear.Parent = p.Backpack
        end
    end

    looptime = numofplayers

    while wait(1) do
        matchTime = matchTime - 1
        print("Run")
        local battling = {}
        for _, player in pairs (game.Players:GetChildren()) do
            if player then
                repeat wait() until player.Character
                local humanoid = player.Character:FindFirstChild("Humanoid")
                local matchTag = player.Character:FindFirstChild("MatchTag")
                if player.Character.MatchTag then
                    table.insert(battling, player)
                else 
                    error("MatchTag not found")
                end
            end
        end
        if #battling < 1 then
            print("All are dead")
            break
        elseif #battling == 1 then
            print("We have a winner")
            break
        elseif #battling > 1 then
            print(matchTime)
        elseif matchTime <= 0 then
            matchTime = timeConst
            break
        end
    end

    wait()
    for _, player in pairs (contestants) do
        if player and player.Character then
            local humanoid = player.Character:FindFirstChild("Humanoid")
            local matchTag = player.Character:FindFirstChild("MatchTag")
            player.TeamColor = game.Teams.Lobby.TeamColor
            if humanoid then
                humanoid:UnequipTools()
            end
            if matchTag then
                matchTag:Destroy()
            end
        end
        local Backpack = player:FindFirstChild("Backpack")
        if Backpack then
            Backpack:ClearAllChildren()
            print("Backpack cleared")
        end
        if player.Character:FindFirstChild("DeathScript") then
            player.Character.DeathScript.Parent = nil
        end
    end
    game.workspace:WaitForChild("ForestMap").Parent = maps
end



--[[ Log 
    The previous script was working perfectly until I realized I hadn't created a way to add players to tables and check them
    Working on this script I am running in to the same problems you were and a few more.
    Both characters now load but they fall in to a loading loop. I can either break the loop and then create another loop that loads the characters or create a conditional
    to determine if the players are loaded and then break the loop.
    I removed the machine gun as it caused a major error loop not allowing the script to execute.

    players now loads correctly. 
--]]