Well if they're adept to intermediate, and their masters are elite, then they wouldn't need a 'ridiculous' amount of back up then since none of our characters are high tier. Just because a group is large, doesn't mean all of them are fully capable benders/fighters. In many cases, a big group would make it even more challenging, having to worry about friendly fire and the weakest of the bunch getting used as hostages. 

I went ahead and made the small edits.