Well, in this case…the game was started with the correct number of players. A player who was brand new to the league did not approach me to sign up until after the groups had been formed. So he got added to a three person group.
I was going to have him play solo after they had finished the game, but they were still on Ball 1, with a credit, and the current player happened to be in video mode which I thought would be an okay time to press the start button (and the current player wasn’t even aware I had done it at the time).
Anyway, in the future, I’d wait until between players or stick with the original plan and have them play solo after. I’ve never had this situation before in 14 season though, so it’s probably not going to come up again.
Cool bug, bro.