Channel Madness Semifinals: HP’s Lannum, Veeam’s Rooney Advance To Championship Round

The winners of the Semifinal matchups of the 2020 CRN Channel Madness tournament are ready to face off in the final round.

The Semifinal round of the CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs saw a strong group of channel executives battle their way through the Field of Four, but only two can make it into the final round.

HP’s Scott Lannum had jumped out to an early lead as of Friday afternoon and continued his momentum through the weekend voting. Cisco’s Oliver Tuszik gained some ground, but, in the end, it proved too steep a hill for him to climb. Lannum wins this one with 57 percent of the vote to Tuszik’s 43 percent.

On the other side of the bracket, Veeam’s Kevin Rooney had fallen behind in his matchup against Check Point’s Frank Rauch, but Rooney found some magic and emerged as the victor with 62 percent of the vote to Rauch’s 38 percent.

That sets up a final matchup between tournament rookie Lannum and tournament veteran Rooney, making his first visit to the championship round on his third try.

Representing the Hardware region, Lannum’s road to the final started in Round 1, where he held on to win a tight matchup with Dell’s Joyce Mullen by garnering 50.5 percent of the vote. He breezed through his Round 2 matchup, winning 72 percent of the vote against Lexmark’s Sammy Kinlaw. He fended off a late charge to win his Round 3 matchup with 56 percent of the vote against Lenovo’s Rob Cato before besting Tuszik in the semifinals.

Carrying the banner for the Cloud region, Rooney started off by wowing the crowd in Round 1, winning 68 percent of the vote in a solid victory over IBM’s Carola Cazenave. Then he brought the heat to his Round 2 matchup against Google’s Carolee Gearhart, winning with 77 percent of the vote. Rooney was in command of his Round 3 matchup, winning with 76 percent of the vote over Microsoft’s Gavriella Schuster before ousting Rauch in Round 4.

Lannum vs. Rooney for the 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!