Nutanix’s Alvarez Stuns Eaton’s Gangi In Channel Madness Quarterfinals

April 01, 2021, 01:55 PM EDT

Round 3 of the CRN Channel Madness Tournament saw Nutanix’s Christian Alvarez orchestrate a dramatic come-from-behind victory to win the Infrastructure region over Eaton’s Curtiz Gangi.

The polls for the quarterfinal round of the 2021CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs are closed, the tallies are final and the Enterprise Eight are about to learn their fate.

With titles up for grabs in the Infrastructure, Hardware, Cloud and Security regions, let’s look at who’s advancing to the Field of Four.

Nutanix’s Christian Alvarez pulled off a stunning come-from-behind win over Eaton’s Curtiz Gangi, who had been comfortably out in front for most of the match, with Alvarez only pulling in 15 percent of the vote as of Wednesday morning. But after a flurry of voting later that night, it was tournament rookie Alvarez who ended up on top with 62 percent of the vote over Gangi’s 38 percent.

The dream of becoming the first repeat winner of the CRN Channel Madness is still alive for Veeam’s Kevin Rooney as he held on to win the Cloud region with 59 percent of the vote over Eric Martorano of Nextiva with 41 percent.

Aruba’s Donna Grothjan advanced to the Field of Four for the first time by claiming the Hardware crown, beating out Scale Computing’s Scott Mann. Grothjan garnered 53 percent of the vote to Mann’s 47 percent.

And in the Security region, Check Point’s Frank Rauch proved victorious to advance to the Field of Four for the second year in a row with 74 percent of the vote against Michelle Welch of WatchGuard, who ended with 26 percent.

That sets up a repeat match between Veeam’s Kevin Rooney and Check Point’s Frank Rauch in Round 4, while Nutanix’s Christian Alvarez takes on Aruba’s Donna Grothjan in the other Field of Four matchup.

Voting in the semifinal round opens today, Thursday, April 1 at 4 p.m. ET and will remain open until Monday, April 5 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! 

Jennifer Follett

Jennifer Follett is the Executive Editor for CRN where she has been covering the IT solution provider channel for 20 years. She currently oversees CRN magazine and CRN.com, the website for the industry’s leading channel publication. She can be reached at jfollett@thechannelcompany.com.