After an action-packed weekend of voting, here’s where things stand in the opening round of CRN’s Channel Madness Tournament.
With two days left in Round 1 voting in the 2026 Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs, the bracket is anything but settled. A flurry of weekend voting produced lead changes and razor-thin advantages across the field.
Some of the wildest matchups of the round are taking place in the Evolution region, where Scott Barlow of Sophos was trailing Friday but then surged ahead over the weekend to jump out in front of Everpure’s Hope Galley. Barlow is currently ahead with 75 percent of the vote to Galley’s 25 percent.
In another lead change, Veeam’s Kevin Rooney had fallen behind ThreatDown’s Kendra Krause Friday but over the weekend gained the lead with 57 percent of the vote to Krause’s 43 percent.
Elsewhere in the region, tournament rookie Landon Scott of Fortinet is showing some fortitude. He was trailing behind Corero’s Michelle Ragusa-McBain but turned up the heat in weekend voting and now sits in the lead with 53 percent of the vote to Ragusa-McBain’s 47 percent.
Meanwhile in the Transformation region, Arctic Wolf’s Bob Skelley is in a tight matchup against Microsoft’s Nicole Dezen. The two were nearly tied on Friday, but Skelley is now ahead with 52 percent of the vote to Dezen’s 48 percent.
Another close one in the region is brewing between HP Inc.’s Scott Lannum and WatchGuard’s Michelle Welch, where Lannum is leading with 54 percent of the vote to Welch’s 46 percent.
In the Acceleration region, CrowdStrike’s Michael Rogers is clinging to a small lead over Schneider Electric’s Gordon Lord, who is coming on strong. Rogers is in front with 51 percent of the vote to Lord’s 49 percent.
Here’s a look at the full results so far:
Transformation
Christine McElduff, Cloudflare, 73 percent vs. Nick Tidd, Zoom Communications, 27 percent
Scott Lannum, HP Inc., 54 percent vs. Michelle Welch, WatchGuard, 46 percent
Bob Skelley, Arctic Wolf, 52 percent vs. Nicole Dezen, Microsoft, 48 percent
Tara Fine, Broadcom, 40 percent vs. Jennifer Heard, Red Hat, 60 percent
Acceleration
Michael DePalma, OpenText, 67 percent vs. Craig Weinstein, Nvidia, 33 percent
Gordon Lord, Schneider Electric, 49 percent vs. Michael Rogers, CrowdStrike, 51 percent
Dan Tomaszewski, Kaseya, 57 percent vs. Tim Coogan, Cisco Systems, 43 percent
Lisa Citron, F5, 64 percent vs. Jeremiah Jenson, HPE, 36 percent
Innovation
Christian Goffi, Nutanix, 58 percent vs. Michael Park, ServiceNow, 42 percent
Gordon Mackintosh, Equinix, 32 percent vs. Denise Millard, Dell Technologies, 68 percent
Larissa Crandall, 1Password, 71 percent vs. Craig Patterson, Exabeam, 29 percent
Wade McFarland, Lenovo, 58 percent vs. Steve Loeb, Eaton, 42 percent
Evolution
Kevin Rooney, Veeam Software, 57 percent vs. Kendra Krause, ThreatDown, 43 percent
Michelle Ragusa-McBain, Corero, 47 percent vs. Landon Scott, Fortinet, 53 percent
Scott Barlow, Sophos, 75 percent vs. Hope Galley, Everpure, 25 percent
Brian Lanigan, SentinelOne, 53 percent vs. David Guzzi, Intel, 47 percent
Voting in Round 1 remains open until noon ET on Wednesday, March 18, so there’s still time to head to CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief!
