Blueprint Run On Server Events not really on server?

Using blueprint I am trying to make it spawn characters for players after a percentage of connected players have typed “start”.

I have chat messages replicating between clients and I can see that the “start” is getting sent to the server.

However, when I try to call into the game mode from inside this event it appears to return None. I can even spawn the actor, but no matter what I try the call to “possess” never appears to actually possess the player.

Here’s what I currently have, but keep in mind I’ve tried all sorts of bizarre things.

My end goal is to NOT spawn players when they join, but only after at a set point – if I’m going about this the hard way and something would probably make it easier, please do let me know.