It kinda sucked too, because I liked the idea of "pro-bending" (even if it was dropped really quickly by the creators). But you're right, this is supposedly professional bending where elites should be, and it just felt lame because none of these benders were anything special.
All the sports matches felt woefully underpowered for what even basic soldiers were doing during the time of Aang trying to cross the world.
They even added in fatigue like some video game mechanic...
It kinda sucked too, because I liked the idea of "pro-bending" (even if it was dropped really quickly by the creators). But you're right, this is supposedly professional bending where elites should be, and it just felt lame because none of these benders were anything special.