Veeam’s Rooney, Cloudflare’s Evans Holding Off Rivals: Quarterfinals Update

The competition is fierce in Round 3 of CRN’s 2025 Channel Madness tournament as the Enterprise 8 play for spots in the Field of Four.

The quarterfinals of the CRN Channel Madness Tournament are underway, and the votes are flooding in. Here’s a look at how the Enterprise 8 are faring so far.

In the Transformation region, former Channel Madness Champion Kevin Rooney of Veeam Software has come out strong with 60 percent of the vote in his matchup against tournament rookie Michael DePalma of OpenText, who’s at 40 percent. DePalma has looked strong through the first two rounds but certainly has his work cut out for him against Rooney, who won the tournament in 2020.

In a battle of two tournament newcomers, Broadcom’s Tara Fine looks sharp with 60 percent of the vote over Sophos’ Scott Barlow, who’s at 40 percent, in the Innovation region. Fine is coming off a hard-fought victory in Round 2, so time will tell if she has the legs to keep up the pace against Barlow, who had an easier time of it in the previous round.

Defending champion Tom Evans of Cloudflare is showing no sign of tiring in his contest against Lenovo’s Rob Cato in the battle for the Evolution region crown. Evans is out in front with 68 percent of the vote to Cato’s 32 percent.

And in the Acceleration region, 1Password’s Lori Cornmesser has had an impressive start against Kaseya’s Dan Tomaszewski. Cornmesser is ahead with 71 percent of the vote to Tomaszewski’s 29 percent.

Voting in Round 3 is open until noon ET on Thursday, March 27, and the winners will move ahead into the semifinals as the Field of Four. Visit crn.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief!