Rauch Leading Alvarez In Channel Madness Final

The CRN Channel Madness Championship is still up for grabs with less than 24 hours of voting remaining.

The championship round of the 2021 CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs is in full swing as Nutanix’s Christian Alvarez faces off against Frank Rauch of Check Point Software Technologies.

With less than 24 hours left of voting, Rauch is currently out in front, leading with 58 percent of the vote to Alvarez’s 42 percent. Rauch jumped out early after voting opened Monday and has held the lead since, but Alvarez has been gaining ground.

Carrying the banner for the Infrastructure region, Alvarez’s road to the final included a Round 3 triumph over Eaton’s Curtiz Gangi. He also beat out Schneider Electric’s Shannon Sbar in Round 2 after ousting Cisco’s Oliver Tuszik in Round 1.

Representing the Security region, Rauch breezed through his Round 3 matchup against WatchGuard’s Michelle Welch, prevailed in a hard-fought matchup against Palo Alto Networks’ Karl Soderlund in Round 2 and made quick work of CrowdStrike’s Matthew Polly in Round 1.

There’s still plenty of time left to support your favorite. Voting for the final round is open until Wednesday, April 7, at 10 a.m. ET.

Visit CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief!