NPC's in Academy?

I was under the impression that the bit at the beginning of the academy, with the red and blue teams, was PvP but my roommate swears up and down that when he played it, his team was fighting NPC's. He says they were all absolute clones of each other, with generic fantasy names who simply rushed brainlessly at them. I figured he'd just been fighting stupid players, but he insists they weren't. Am I wrong? Does the game generate NPC's to fight if there aren't enough players available or something?

On the occasions that i've entered the Academy when there wasn't anyone else around, the PvP part was skipped entirely, and it takes you straight to the fight with the Grawl. However, that's not to say that it isn't possible to end up against an all henchmen team .. perhaps if the amount of people waiting to enter were an uneven number, for example.

all i know is at level 6 whatever i got hit by was an instant 1 hit kill

one second i was standing there and the next i was flat on my back and watched the rest of the party get killed and then the cut scene of the searing and my party minus 1 was in old seared askalon and i left the party and continued

only dyes i got this beta were silver red blue and orange