CRN Channel Madness: We're Down To The Field Of Four

Quarterfinal voting in the CRN Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs has come to a close, and the Enterprise Eight are about to learn their fate.

With titles up for grabs in the Infrastructure, Hardware, Cloud and Software regions, let's look at how it all shook out.

We have breaking news in the Software region, with CRN reporting Thursday that Microsoft's Jenni Flinders is leaving the company after 15 years. Perhaps fittingly, Flinders' exit from the software giant coincides with her exit from CRN Channel Madness, as Flinders was unable to bring down IBM's Marc Dupaquier. Dupaquier wins the Software region 66 percent to 34 percent.

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Watch the video to find out how to win a limited edition CRN Channel Madness t-shirt! [official rules]

Shannon Sbar of APC by Schneider Electric locked down the Infrastructure crown, winning her matchup with F5's Jim Ritchings. Sbar held a steady lead throughout and refused to let it go, winning 55 percent to 45 percent.

In the Cloud region, Verizon's Adam Famularo came out hot at tip-off, and that proved to be the difference in his head-to-head with VMware's Frank Rauch. Rauch attempted some last-minute heroics, picking up 21 points since yesterday, but it wasn't enough to overtake Famularo, who wins it 53 percent to 47 percent.

In the Hardware region, Sophos's Mike Valentine started out strong against Ruckus's Ron Gill and grew his lead from there. Valentine is the king of the Hardware region with his 69 percent to 31 percent victory.

From the Enterprise Eight we move now to the Field of Four. Shannon Sbar of APC by Schneider Electric faces off against Sophos's Mike Valentine, while Verizon's Adam Famularo takes on IBM's Marc Dupaquier.

Voting for the semifinal round opens today, Thursday, April 2 at 4:00 PM ET and remains open until Monday, April 6 at noon ET. Then get ready for the finals, which kick off later Monday. Visit CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chiefs.

PUBLISHED APRIL 2, 2015