It takes a degree of luck as well as just patiently sifting through different alt coins and seeing if they're technical data is just a copy paste or a genuine improvement.
I've had some situations where I've had that like XRB and UNI as well as my share of wastes.
A good example would be the PRISM/Ray project, looks like an upgraded XMR and ETH, just not sure if it's a scam or not yet.
This is a sure fire way to lose your money, you talk about luck but when it comes to investing nothing comes down to luck, you need to always be ready to find good projects and if that means reading hundreds of whitepapers then that is something that must be done, luck should not be a factor at all, when it comes to investing in new coins you need to be completely sure of what you are doing otherwise if you invest in a coin thinking that your luck will save you sooner or later you will lose your investment in that coin.