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. 
--]]