CRN Channel Madness Round 1 (So Far): Cisco’s Tuszik In Tight Race With Datto’s Rae

We're one day into voting in Round 1 of the 2019 CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs, and we've already got a few tight matchups brewing so let's take a look at how things stand so far.

In the Infrastructure region, Cisco's Oliver Tuszik has jumped out to a slim lead with 52 percent of the vote over Datto's Rob Rae at 48 percent.

Elsewhere in that region, APC by Schneider Electric's Shannon Sbar has taken an early lead with 70 percent over Juniper Networks' Brian Rosenberg at 30 percent, while Extreme Networks' Gordon Mackintosh is winning by the same margin over Hewlett Packard Enterprise's Paul Hunter.

And last year's second-place finisher, Jeff McCullough of NetApp, is out in front of Eaton's Curtiz Gangi 63 percent to 37 percent.

In the closest matchup of the Security region at this point, Check Point Software Technologies' Frank Rauch and Fortinet's Jon Bove have already had a few lead changes. Rauch is currently ahead with 54 percent to Bove's 46 percent.

Kendra Krause of Sophos has come out strong with 63 percent of the vote in her matchup against Symantec's Torjus Gylstorff, at 37 percent.

FireEye's Chris Carter is ahead with 69 percent of the vote over SonicWall's HoJin Kim at 31 percent, while 2018's Channel Madness Champion Ken McCray has come out fighting and is leading Kaspersky Lab's Jason Stein by the same margin.

In the Hardware region, tournament rookie Jason Kimrey of Intel looks good in his matchup against Lexmark's Sammy Kinlaw. Kimrey currently leads 57 percent to 43 percent.

Lenovo's Rob Cato is showing his moves with 67 percent of the vote in his matchup with Aruba's Donna Grothjan, with 34 percent.

Another tournament rookie, Raelyn Kritzer of Ruckus Networks is bringing the head against HP Inc.'s Stephanie Dismore. Kritzer currently leads 59 percent to 41 percent.

And Dell EMC's Joyce Mullen is more than holding her own against Plantronics/Polycom's Nick Tidd. Mullen is ahead 64 percent to 36 percent.

And in the Cloud region, Microsoft's Gavriella Schuster looks red hot in her matchup against IBM's John Teltsch, with Schuster leading 70 percent to 30 percent.

Veeam's Kevin Rooney game plan looks solid against Amazon Web Services' Terry Wise, with Rooney ahead 69 percent to 31 percent.

Google's Carolee Gearhart is making the most of her tournament debut, leading Intermedia's Jonathan McCormick 64 percent to 36 percent.

And VMware's Jenni Flinders is in control of her matchup against Oracle's Iain Urquhart. Flinders is ahead 67 percent to 33 percent.

That's where things sit after Day 1 of Channel Madness. Voting in Round 1 remains open until noon ET on Wednesday, March 20. Visit crn.com/madness to cast your vote and choose your chief!