Two Past Champions Overthrown: Channel Madness Round 3 Results

The quarterfinals of the CRN Channel Madness Tournament saw come-from-behind wins for all four victors.

The quarterfinal round of the 2024 CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs showcased strong performances where all four winners earned come-from-behind victories, including two who muscled past former champions to advance to the semifinal round.

With titles up for grabs in the Transformation, Acceleration, Innovation and Evolution regions, let’s look at which of the Enterprise Eight are advancing to the Field of Four.

The closest match of the round took place in the Innovation region, where Frank Rauch of Cato Networks was able to fend off Fortinet’s Ken McCray—who won the tournament in 2018—in a contest decided in the final hours of voting. Rauch came out ahead with 51 percent of the vote to McCray’s 49 percent.

The Acceleration region was home to another close one, where tournament rookie Michelle Ragusa-McBain brought a winning game plan to her matchup against two-time defending champion Scott Mann of Scale Computing. Mann held the lead as of Wednesday, but Ragusa-McBain came on strong at the end to win with 53 percent of the vote to Mann’s 47 percent.

The Transformation region saw a big swing in the last 24 hours of voting, where Phil Soper of Hewlett Packard Enterprise nabbed 62 percent of the vote to win his matchup against Lenovo’s Rob Cato, who ended with 38 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile in the Evolution region, Palo Alto Networks’ Tom Evans also came on strong at the end to drive past HP Inc.’s Scott Lannum. Evans brought in 60 percent of the vote to Lannum’s 40 percent.

That means Soper and Ragusa-McBain will face each other in Round 4 while Rauch takes on Evans in the other Field of Four matchup.

Voting in the semifinal round opens today, Thursday, March 28 at 4:00 PM ET and will remain open until Monday, April 1 at noon ET. Then get ready for the final round, which kicks off later Monday. Visit CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief!