Channel Madness Round 2: Defending Champ McCray Does Not Advance

The voting is closed, and Round 2 of the 2019 CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs is now but a memory. Several chiefs were able to fend off strong challenges late in their matchups. Here's a look at how the Solutions 16 fared and who's moving on to the quarterfinal round as the Enterprise 8.

In an upset victory in the Security region, FireEye's Chris Carter held off 2018 Channel Madness Champion Ken McCray of McAfee. Carter jumped out to an early lead in the round and was able to fend off a late surge by McCray, winning 59 percent to 41 percent.

In the other Security region matchup, Sophos' Kendra Krause kept her eye on the prize, winning 68 percent to 32 percent over Frank Rauch, who represented Check Point Software Technologies for the first time in the tournament after many years with VMware.

In the Hardware region, Lenovo's Rob Cato was able to extend his lead over Lexmark's Sammy Kinlaw to win with 55 percent of the vote to Kinlaw's 45 percent, closing out a closely watched match that pitted Cato against his predecessor.

Also in the Hardware region, HP Inc.'s Stephanie Dismore ramped up her efforts in the closing hours of Round 2, but it was not enough to overcome Dell EMC's Joyce Mullen. Mullen won this one 65 percent to Dismore's 35 percent.

In the Infrastructure region, Gordon Mackintosh of Extreme Networks fought off a fierce attempt at a comeback from Datto's Rob Rae. Rae picked up 24 percentage points in 24 hours, but Mackintosh won it 53 percent to 47 percent.

Elsewhere in the region, NetApp's Jeff McCullough was in command of his matchup against Shannon Sbar of APC by Schneider Electric, winning 74 percent to 26 percent.
In the Cloud region, VMware's Jenni Flinders took care of business against Google's Carolee Gearhart, winning 62 percent to 38 percent, while Veeam's Kevin Rooney dispatched Microsoft's Gavriella Schuster, winning 67 percent to 33 percent.

Here's another look at the full Round 2 results:

Infrastructure

Jeff McCullough, NetApp 74 vs. Shannon Sbar, APC by Schneider Electric 26

Gordon Mackintosh, Extreme Networks 53 vs. Rob Rae, Datto 47

Hardware

Joyce Mullen, Dell EMC 65 vs. Stephanie Dismore, HP Inc. 35

Rob Cato, Lenovo 55 vs. Sammy Kinlaw, Lexmark 45

Cloud

Jenni Flinders, VMware 62 vs. Carolee Gearhart, Google 38

Kevin Rooney, Veeam 67 vs. Gavriella Schuster, Microsoft 33

Security

Ken McCray, McAfee 41 vs. Chris Carter, FireEye 59

Frank Rauch, Check Point Software Technologies 32 vs. Kendra Krause, Sophos 68

McCullough, Mullen and Rooney now find themselves on familiar ground, moving into the quarterfinal round for the second year in a row. Krause has also been here before, making it to the Enterprise 8 in 2017, as has Flinders, who represented Microsoft in the quarterfinal round in the inaugural 2015 tournament.

This year’s Enterprise 8 matchups will pit NetApp's McCullough against Extreme's Mackintosh for the Infrastructure title, while Dell EMC's Mullen faces off against Lenovo's Cato for the Hardware crown.

VMware's Flinders will go toe-to-toe with Veeam's Rooney for the Cloud title, while FireEye's Chris Carter squares off against Sophos' Krause for the Security 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!