It was sad to see it fail (but they got their credits.)
I had problems finding a game, so when I finally ended up in a lobby, I wasn't picky. It was pre-set Reapers Giant and it certainly appeared to be a collection of fairly new players. One of them was only N7 14, but the other two had equipment on, and were even using workable loadouts, with AP and all that jazz.
It sure ended up feeling like I had the aggro for almost the whole game (probably owing to them mostly camping the LZ.) I burned through most of my medigel and ops packs in the first few waves, and eventually had to hang by the LZ to stay in rescue range.
They worked for it, though, and did all the objectives. I was revived into a synch kill on Wave 10, but they finished the objective without me (escort.) Then another player went down and it was left to the last two, one of whom was the N7 14. Unfortunately, they didn't appear to have the firepower to take down the enemies, and ultimately ended up kiting them for around five minutes without being able to do enough damage to finish any but the mooks. The inevitable caught up with them and Wave 10 ended with most of the enemies still standing.
I was glad they ended up with the credits, at least.