How to get count of watchers or request participants?

[Michael Burback]

I'm trying to make an automation rule that takes action based on the count of request participants when an issue is created. As a test, I have the action set to post a comment on the count of participants. I'm using a smart value of {{issue.Request Participants.size}}, but when an issue gets created, a participant size of 0 is returned even though there are at least two or more participants on an issue.

However, when I change the trigger to 'comment' instead of 'issue created' then it actually works and returns the correct participant count. 

Is there a reason why it won't work on issue creation?

Thanks!

[Michael Burback · Accepted solution]

Solved it by adding a re-fetch issue data so now the participants count is being read on issue creation!