One thing that always bothered me about the uper channlerer status given to Alivia was that while she may be very strong she was still captured by Asha'man. Now we have seen very strong Asha'man and while they are generally stronger that Aes Sedai and their tallents lie (usually) with fire and earth that make great weapons most are not forsaken level but they still were able to knock her out.

If two channelers of equal or near equal strenght fight one on one skill will then play a very big factor. But not only is there knowing how to use a weave but what I would have though is a big factor is how good a fighter they are i.e. how fast can they spin their weaves, can they keep their heads while the ground around them is blowing up etc. Then there is also luck