I don't know if it's actually all that much donking, i played aprox 35 games over states and regs, only 3 that i remember were donks. Thats 1/11, which is still a lot, but that does not give you the right to say anyone that is doing good donks through everything. :/
Gallade, was your post directed at me? How do you get "anyone that is doing good donks through everything" from what I said? I was making the point that skill and preparation are sometimes required to do well, but not always. A mediocre player can sneak into the top cut with Luxchomp by having good starts and a couple of donks. It might not mean that they'll win the whole thing, but they certainly did better on the surface than an "expert" who had a couple of bad opening hands and got donked once or twice. It's what Ruiner said, variance.
This is good because it leads me into my ultimate point about skill and luck in our current format. Here's the definition of variance:
"1. The fact or quality of being different, divergent, or inconsistent." Focus in on that idea of "inconsistency." When I sit down at tournaments today, so much of how the game will play out is determined either directly or indirectly by what happens on turn 1. If I donk my opponent or I get donked myself, that's pretty direct. It's also something that players can't necessarily account for. I ran Luxchomp for Regionals with the idea that I wouldn't be as susceptible to donks as I would if I played Gyarados. Turns out, I got donked even more.
Indirectly, players in the current format can get one of those super-good starts that puts the opponent at a complete disadvantage. Say I play Luxchomp mirror and put Garchomp C active and bench a Bronzong G. My opponent goes first and OHKO's my Garchomp C with an Ambipom G and DCE. I now have to burn a Poketurn for the Bronzong G that I'll promote, I will have lost my Garchomp C (extremely important in the mirror), and it all happened before I got a turn. I didn't get donked, but unless my opponent is braindead, I'll probably never catch up. This same thing applies for many of the popular decks in the game right now: Machamp, Gyarados, Luxchomp, Dialgachomp, Sablelock... these decks can all gain a huge advantage first turn and see that the opponent never catch up. This doesn't even get into the turn 1 trainer lock that Vilegar can pull off. Again, not a donk, but a Gyarados player with 3 PokeDrawer+ in hand either explodes into first turn KO's or does nothing until it loses -- all based on what happens turn 1.
The current interactions that occur in a lot of games are inconsistent because they happen on turn 1 and give players very little to work with. There's no reaction time, and many of the games are basically decided on opening hands. Speed has everything to do with it -- even the speed with which a player can achieve a trainer lock (turn 1).
Now, with all of this said, when turn 1 is over and there's no clear winner to the game, that's when a player's skill can shine. I played a game this past weekend (Luxchomp mirror) where I was put at an immediate disadvantage on turn 1. Since I didn't get donked and the disadvantage wasn't overwhelming, I made a brilliant comeback and actually won that game. I had to play it perfectly to avoid losing, and I managed to do so. I felt very proud and for a brief moment realized the true skill that is sometimes required to play well in the format. That fun and mentally challenging game was sandwiched between two games in which I donked Machamp/Vileplume decks. Those games were boring, over in a couple of minutes, and represented no exchange of skill between players (just opening hands).
Since the variance is so high, you also have a lot of players with many different perspectives of the game. One person can play 35 games and experience only 3 donks; another person can count 7 donks out of their 24 games (guess who that is). But donks aside, there are so many games that are decided by opening hands that we might as well just sit down and reveal our hands to our opponents and determine who the winner will be -- it'll save us all a lot of time. When you get past the donk, then past the opening hand issue, real games can be had. Those games are where true skill shines, but it's all clouded by those first two issues.
Also compounding the issue are all the forms of skill that aren't present in our current format. Deckbuilding skill is at an all time low -- current decks have been around for so long that good lists are no longer a mystery. Deck creativity is also absent. Why run a rogue when we all know it'll lose? And finally, the ability to adapt to a new format is gone... since we've had the same format for so long. These indeed
are representative of player skill, they're just things that most players never think about. But in our current format, there's never a need to of course.
Edit:
Along with the idea of variance is the present danger of having bad matchups (rock, paper, scissors format). Then, there's also the fact that most non-SP decks have stupid coin flips built into them (Machamp: Hurricane Punch, Gengar: Feinting Spell, Gyarados: Pokemon Reversal, Super Scoop Up). Just a few more things to think about.
TL;DR -- get past the huge amount of variance to the game and it's not so bad.
