CRN Channel Madness: Ruckus' Cheek, AT&T's McCorcle Advance To Championship Round

After 18 days of voting and over 270,000 votes cast across four rounds, we're down to the final two executives in the CRN 2016 Channel Madness Tournament of Chiefs.

Let's take a look at how the semifinal round played out.

Sandra Glaser Cheek of Ruckus found herself down to Extreme's Bob Gault Friday afternoon but came back strong over the weekend and into Monday morning to take the lead. Gault put on a full court press to try to come back but ultimately Cheek pulls this one out at the buzzer, winning 51 percent to 49 percent. Add that to what's already a big day for Ruckus as the company today said it will be acquired by Brocade for around $1.2 billion.

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On the other side of the bracket, AT&T's Brooks McCorcle jumped out to an early lead against reigning champion Mike Valentine of Sophos. Valentine gained a lot of ground but not enough to take down McCorcle. No repeat for Valentine this year as McCorcle pulls off an upset win 58 percent to 42 percent.

So that brings us to an all-female final round where Sandra Glaser Cheek of Ruckus will square off against AT&T's Brooks McCorcle for the title.

Representing the Hardware region, Cheek's road to the final started with a Round 1 victory over Eaton's Curtiz Gangi, followed by impressive wins against Dell's Frank Vitagliano and Lenovo's Sammy Kinlaw before besting Gault in the semifinals.

From the Cloud region, AT&T's McCorcle came out strong against StorageCraft's Mike Kunz, then moved past VMware's Frank Rauch and Datto's Rob Rae before beating Valentine.

Cheek Vs. McCorcle for the CRN Channel Madness championship kicks off today at 4:00 PM ET and closes Wednesday, April 6 at 10:00 AM ET. Visit CRN.com/madness to cast your votes and choose your chief!