The StarLadder Berlin Major had not one, but two upsets on its first day in the Champions stage. Australia's Renegades (No. 16) swiftly dispatched ENCE (No. 3), who were undefeated in the tournament until then. A bigger surprise awaited hours later, as CIS team AVANGAR (No. 15) beat heavily favoured Team Vitality (No. 2).

Although few members in the community had expected Renegades and AVANGAR to prevail, their milestone victories threw prediction brackets into disarray. Editor's Picks dev1ce on KO'ing Team Liquid: 'They're still the best in the world'

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Only one of them will achieve their ambition of reaching their first major final. By Saturday's end, one of the following will happen.

AdreN's AVANGAR gambit pays off

In a career that has spanned over a decade and started in Counter-Strike 1.6, AdreN experienced success within the Commonwealth of Independent States with Gambit Gaming, and internationally with FaZe Clan. His return to the CIS region where he started -- specifically in a Kazakh team -- was a natural fit as he could fall back into communicating in Russian.

Besides, he had identified he would be part of something greater: developing promising up-and-coming players, and bringing about a new era in the region. Indeed, before joining them, AVANGAR showed potential by qualifying to the Intel Extreme Masters XIII Katowice Major in 2019.

The players needed guidance to break through, and AdreN was willing to provide that. After all, he had prepared for countless tournaments before, built a strong mentality, learned from previous mistakes, and won premier events (ESL One Cologne 2018 for instance), and built a mindset to sustain his effort and ward off stage pressure -- all of which his teammates had yet to do.

To that end, AdreN focused on their habits during practice, as long as it kept their unique playstyle intact. They needed to experience pressure through expectations.

"Every practice had to be [as if] we were playing a tournament," AdreN said. "We focused most on the mental stuff -- [it's] the most important stuff. If you feel confident playing the tournament, you are going to beat the other team. If you feel pressured, nothing is going to work [out] for you."

The players responded much better than he predicted, a matter he attributes to their youth and flexible thinking. In the major, they went above and beyond, developing veteran-like composure.

"This is their first playoffs in a major, but they did incredible work with the mental [stuff]," AdreN added. "They didn't scare, they were focused. They felt as if they were playing on stage for a career."

The team used the tournaments before the Major as rehearsals for the big event, and they left little to chance once it started. After proceeding from the New Challenger stage to the New Legends, they qualified in fifth place after beating G2 Esports 2-1. Then, they outlasted Team Vitality 2-1 and shocked the world.

Each step had its challenges, and they did not get carried away. Whenever they won, they took it in their stride.

"They didn't feel strong emotions after [wins]," AdreN said. "We were so focused, because we didn't win the major yet. Everyone is so focused, and I like it.

"We have nothing to lose, but we are not going to look to the finals [yet]. Our next opponent is Renegades, and we're going to focus on them."

Renegades and jks's resilience yielded results

Renegades also overcame difficulties of their own, starting with the integration of Rifler Jay "liazz" Tregillgas and AWPer Sean "Gratisfaction" Kaiwai on the starting lineup, and the return of coach Aleksandar "kassad" Trifunović.

Gratisfaction and liazz participated in many tournaments in Australia, most of them online; but frequent offline tournaments across the world were a different story, and on a different team to boot.

"Back home in Australia, you travel to an event or a qualifier, then you have a couple of weeks or months off because you don't have that many opportunities," jks said. "On top of that, we didn't know them personally."

As for kassad, he returned to a different team, led by Aaron "AZR" Ward after in-game leader and AWPer Noah "Nifty" Francis left the organization. With so many changes, the team struggled in their initial tournaments, but gathered steam early in 2019 with a top eight finish at the Katowice Major, and a semifinal appearance at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7.

However, it all came crashing when Gratisfaction experienced visa issues trying to gain entry to the United States, causing Renegades to lose momentum until they were resolved. At times, Gratisfaction would practice remotely from Canada; other times, Renegades used a stand-in. Eventually, those issues were fixed, allowing the team to focus on performing, but their encouraging top eight finish at DreamHack Dallas was the exception in a pack of early exits.

With so much stress accumulated from changes and external events, they needed a break as it all weighed heavily. Although the 2019 CS:GO circuit featured a mid-year break, the team opted for an earlier one to recharge their batteries at home, among family and friends.

"The mid-half [of 2019] was a lot of pressure and doubt because we had these issues," jks said. "It really hurts your confidence, and you're not having fun when this stuff is happening. The main reason why we play is to have fun. Of course, we're spending time away from our families and friends, and you want to have something to show for it."

Despite all their woes, support for the organization didn't waver, be it from close friends or fans in the community. Jks believes they kept the team focused.

"That means a lot to us, considering when you're having bad results and going through all these months," jks said. "You feel like you're disappointing everyone, so it's really nice to know that everyone still stuck by our side."

With the major looming, they regrouped two weeks in advance and made sure their difficulties were behind them. With that being the case, they focused on improving their play. Their stage games offered many opportunities on that front as they played 278 rounds (143-135) in the New Legends Stage -- more than any other team. Close games came and went, but they prevailed over FaZe Clan (2-1), DreamEaters (2-0) and G2 Esports (2-1) to qualify for the playoffs.

Their victory against ENCE was even sweeter. Finally, they could breathe, and jks could feel relief.

"It's really nice to know that we are able to bounce back and have a better result than what we did at the start of the year," jks said. "It's really nice to know that all the hard work has paid off, and that everyone stayed together, instead of bombing out of this major. That would have really hurt. It's really great that everyone has a lot of resilience."