First of all, it is important we define what we consider skill in PVP.
-
Building the right teams - Yes in theory, you can beat a 4700+TP team with a team of 3* heroes but you are more likely to fail more times than to be successful. Similarly, it is painful watching people complain about ‘bad boards’ when they build bad teams with no synergy/ full of slow heroes/ under levelled heroes and fail agains a full strength 4700TP team. In poker terms, that is going all in with 2/7 off-suite.
-
Manipulating the boards - I agree that some boards are completely unwinnable. You start off with a terrible board with only one move which doesn’t allow you to clear off any dead tiles. However on average, you are as likely to see these terribad boards as you are to see a God board with an on-colour diamond. The truth most boards require some manipulation and this seperates the elite players from the middling ones. Again this goes back to point 1 about team building as if you bring a fragile, ‘hail Mary’ team you are going to have less moves/ time to turn a sluggish board around. On average, a good player will win more with these average boards compared to bad players. One can simply track the war average of players over a period of time.
-
Specials - The newer set of heroes are precision tools that either counter one hero (e.g. Malosi) or have a small window of effect (e.g. Grazul). Timing their specials are the small margins that determine victory and success. Similarly, if you are bringing a heavy green stack against a defense with Gravemaker, you will want to take him out as quickly as possible as his special can quickly shred your team apart.
So although there is a degree of RNG involved, skilled players will do better in the long run. Just go watch someone like @Uclapack on stream vs. other less successful players…