Rauch, Ragusa-McBain Advance: Channel Madness Round 2 Results

A few close matchups were decided at the buzzer during round 2 of the CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs. Here’s a look at which of the Solutions 16 made it to the Enterprise 8.

Final scores for Round 2 of the 2024 CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs are in, and a few matchups came down to the wire. Here's a look at how the Solutions 16 fared and who's moving on to the quarterfinal round as the Enterprise 8.

The tightest match of the round played out in the Innovation region, where Nutanix’s Christian Goffi and Cato Networks’ Frank Rauch traded shots right up until the buzzer. But in the end, Rauch emerged victorious with 52 percent of the vote to Goffi’s 48 percent.

Another close matchup took place in the Acceleration region between SentinelOne’s Ken Marks and SonicWall’s Michelle Ragusa-McBain. Marks came out of weekend voting with a lead, but Ragusa-McBain was able to turn the tide to grab a win with 54 percent of the vote to Marks’s 46 percent.

In the Transformation region, Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Phil Soper held strong against Veeam Software’s Kevin Rooney, winning with 57 percent of the vote to Rooney’s 43 percent.

And in the Evolution region, HP Inc.’s Scott Lannum nabbed 62 percent of the vote to oust Gordon Mackintosh of Juniper Networks, who ended with 38 percent.

Here's a look at the final scores.

Transformation

Rob Cato, Lenovo, 73 percent vs. Michelle Welch, WatchGuard Technologies, 27 percent

Phil Soper, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, 57 percent vs. Kevin Rooney, Veeam Software, 43 percent

Acceleration

Ken Marks, SentinelOne, 46 percent vs. Michelle Ragusa-McBain, SonicWall, 54 percent

Scott Mann, Scale Computing, 64 percent vs. Eric Torres, ScalePad, 36 percent

Innovation

Bob Skelley, Arctic Wolf, 42 percent vs. Ken McCray, Fortinet, 58 percent

Christian Goffi, Nutanix, 48 percent vs. Frank Rauch, Cato Networks, 52 percent

Evolution

Jenni Flinders, NetApp, 28 percent vs. Tom Evans, Palo Alto Networks, 72 percent

Gordon Mackintosh, Juniper Networks, 38 percent vs. Scott Lannum, HP Inc., 62 percent

That sets up the Enterprise 8 quarterfinal matchups, which will see Lenovo’s Rob Cato take on Phil Soper of HPE for the Transformation crown, while SonicWall’s Michelle Ragusa-McBain faces Scale Computing’s Scott Mann for the Acceleration title.

Ken McCray of Fortinet goes up against Frank Rauch of Cato Networks for the Innovation title, while Palo Alto Networks’ Tom Evans squares off against HP’s Scott Lannum for the Evolution crown.

Voting in Round 3 opens today, Tuesday, March 26 at 4:00 PM ET and remains open until Thursday, March 28 at noon ET.

Visit CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief!