CrowdStrike’s Rogers, Sophos’ Barlow Power Their Way Into Championship Round

The Channel Madness semifinals put the Field of Four in the spotlight, but only two channel chiefs can claim championship berths.

The Semifinal round of the 2026 CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs has wrapped up, setting the stage for a championship showdown between two security-focused channel chiefs.

Let’s take a look at who’s advancing to the final round and the paths they took to get there.

CrowdStrike’s Michael Rogers jumped out early against HP Inc.’s Scott Lannum and held firm the rest of the way, winning 58 percent of the vote to Lannum’s 42 percent.

On the other side of the bracket Sophos’ Scott Barlow—a semifinalist in last year’s tournament—muscled his way into the finals with a strong win over Lenovo’s Wade McFarland. Barlow ended with 65 percent of the vote to McFarland’s 35 percent.

With that, the championship round of Rogers vs. Barlow is set to open later today.

Out of the Acceleration region, Rogers reached the final by knocking off F5’s Lisa Citron in Round 3, following earlier wins against OpenText’s Michael DePalma in Round 2 and Schneider Electric’s Gordon Lord in the opening round in the tournament’s first overtime round.

Emerging from the Evolution region, Barlow advanced past Veeam Software’s Kevin Rooney in Round 3 after fending off SentinelOne’s Brian Lanigan in Round 2 and Everpure’s Hope Galley in Round 1.

Voting for the 2026 CRN Channel Madness championship kicks off today at 4:00 p.m. ET and closes Wednesday, April 1 at 10:00 a.m. ET. Visit CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief!