Recapping the matches

Here is a recap of each day's matches to date. For more details, visit the appropriate "Network Layer."

Championship:

Feb 19:

It's official: Dell employees love Michael Dell. They propelled Dell to a 5,772-3,991 victory over Brocade's CEO Greg Reyes, also no slouch in the the Loved-By-His-Employees department. By virtue of his victory, Dell is "the Most Powerful Person in Networking," according to those that participated in our poll, which began with a field of 64 on January 2.

What did we learn? Big companies can definitely drive the vote. Dell's Asia-Pacific group was the bullpen that helped saved the game a couple of times, coming in late to help preserve a victory. But the little guy did well too. Christine Heckart, president of TeleChoice, made it to the quarterfinals based on a grassroot effort to knock off the big players in our game. In the end, the Dell influence was too strong for anyone to overcome. Like one voter commented, "Dude, it's a DELL!"

Semifinals:

Feb 14:

Michael Dell's Valentine was delivered in the form of a 4,524 to 208 victory over Cisco's Mario Mazzola. That's a whopping 4,316 vote differential! Joining Dell in the finals is Brocade's Greg Reyes, who rode a wave of employee support to a 2,959-1,701 victory over Nokia's Pekka Ala-Pietila. Dell and Reyes will face off Tuesday in a match to determine the "Most Powerful person in Networking." The Finals

Quarterfinals:

Feb 13:

Well, looks like some folks at Dell did not want either of their candidates (Michael Dell and the tag-team duo of Russ Holt/Randy Groves) to lose so they helped rig the vote. When we took the voting offline, there was a tie - 10,323 to 10,323. A quick look at the logs shows that a couple of people with Cable Modems and DSL lines in the greater Austin area decided to cast 1000s of votes for one of the two Dell candidates. Instead of wading through all those to figure out which votes are real and which ones are not, we decided to declare Michael Dell the winner over is two VPs Holt and Groves. In our other match, Nokia's Pekka Ala-Pietilla defeated Sycamore's Desh Deshpande, 754-280. Dell and Ala-Pietilla move to the semi-finals. The Finals

Feb 12:

The Cinderella story of #15-seed Christine Heckart, president of TeleChoice, has come to an end. Heckart put in a strong fight against #5-seed Mario Mazzola, even garnering anti-Cisco votes from the Brocade people voting in the second match. But in the end, Mazzola beat Heckart, 2,751-2,449, for the Layer 2 championship. Coming out of Layer 3, #13-seed Greg Reyes overcame strong Cisco support for his opponent, IEFT Chair Harald Alvestrand (#11-seed), to take the Layer championship, 3,146-2,215. The Finals

Round 3:

Feb 11:

A record setting day as 17,890 people chimed in on the Cisco versus Dell heavyweight battle. Early on Dell's tag-team duo of Russ Holt and Randy Groves, co-VPs of the Enterprise Systems group and a #12 seed, took a commanding lead over Cisco's John Chambers, a #1 seed. But Cisco's no slouch either, using their strong employee base to stage an amazing run to take the lead going into overnight balloting. Dell then called in the bullpen, using it's Asia-Pacific group (according to an e-mail from Dell) to help the Holt/Groves duo beat Chambers, 9,244-8,646. Dell employees also rallied behind their leader, #2-seed Michael Dell, leading him to a commanding 9,507-506 victory over FCC Chairman and #3-seed Michael Powell. This sets up an all-Dell quarterfinal tomorrow. Stay tuned! Layer 4

Feb 8:

According to some employees at Sycamore Networks, "Desh is the man!" And, they backed it up, propelling #4-seed Desh Deshpande, co-founder and chairman of Sycamore, to a 280-111 victory over #1-seed Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel. Also advancing is Pekka Ala-Pietila, president of Nokia, with a 130-118 win over Lt. Gen. John Woodward, deputy CIO, U.S. Air Force. Layer 1

Feb 7:

Not a good week for Enterasys. #15-seed Henry Fiallo, CEO of Enterasys, fell in heavy (some not-so-legal) voting to #11-seed Harald Alvestrand, chair of the IETF, 1370-1085. A few, what we assume are Enterasys backers, with Mediaone and RoadRunner cable modems tried to swing the vote Fiallo's way with large blocks of votes, but those were elimintated. Sadly, a large contigent of votes coming from the Enterasys domain were for Alvestrand - must be Aprisma employees upset about the delayed spinout from the mother ship. Our other match gave Brocade CEO Greg Reyes (#13 seed) a victory over #1-seed Scott McNealy, chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems, 1234-488. Layer 3

Feb 6:

The ride continues for #15-seed Christine Heckart, president of TeleChoice, as she beat out Linux creator Linus Torvalds, a #3-seed, 260-166. Torvalds did have a lead overnight, but with some obvious voter fraud eliminated, Heckart claimed victory. Also advancing is #5-seed Mario Mazzola, chief development officer at Cisco, over #9-seed Joe Nacchio, CEO at Qwest, with a 202-132 victory. Layer 2

Round 2:

Feb5:

Wow! Looks like the employees at Computer Associates and Dell love their respected leaders. We recieved over 5800 votes in a battle between CA's CEO Sanjay Kumar, a #13 seed, and the #12-seed tag-team duo of Russ Holt and Randy Groves, co-VPs of Dell's Enterprise Systems group. In the end, the Holt-Groves combo edged Kumar, 3113-2755. Our second match was no slouch either, bringing in 2500-plus votes. In tight balloting, #1-seed John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, beat out Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden of the NSA, a #8 seed, 1320-1189. Layer 4

Feb 4:

Users in our poll do not seem to get much credit. Witness today's defeat of UPS VP of I/S John Nallin (a #5 seed) at the hands of #4-seed Desh Deshpande, co-founder and chairman of Sycamore, 130-33. Also moving on is Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel and #1 seed, by virtue of a 74-26 victory over #8-seed Jeff Schiller, the IETF's area director for security. Layer 1

Feb 1:

The way things are shaping up, we may have to beef up our Fusion server farm if Grey Reyes and Henry Fiallo continue to garner beaucoup votes. #13-seed Reyes, CEO of Brocade, toasted "Father of the Internet" and #5-seed Vint Cerf, 327-74. Also, Java edge national security as #1-seed Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, defeated #8-seed Tom Ridge, director of Homeland Security, 156-140. Layer 3

Jan 31:

Another #1-seed has fallen by the wayside. This time it's Microsoft's Bill Gates getting beat at the buzzer by #9-seed Joe Nacchio, CEO of Qwest, 96-90. Our other match was a blowout as Cisco employees rallied around #5-seed Mario Mazzola, Cisco's chief development officer, as he beat #13-seed Phil Zimmermann, creator of PGP, 160-70. Layer 2

Jan 30:

The two Michaels advance to the next round in two different fashions. #2-seed Michael Dell's loyal employees helped Dell walloped #10-seed Gary Reiner, senior VP and CIO of General Electric, 321-15. The Dell employees could give Henry Fiallo's Enterasys folks a run for who's supreme voting power. Our other match was thisclose as #3-seed Michael Powell, chair of the FCC, edged out #11-seed Sandra England, executive VP of Network Associates, 128-121. Layer 4

Jan 29:

Larry's tournament ride has come to an end. Oracle's flamboyant Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison, a #2 seed, fell at the hands of #10-seed Pekka Ala-Pietila, president of Nokia, 51-42. Also, the Air Force's Lt. Gen. John "Jack" Woodward, a #3 seed, defeated GM CIO Ralph Szygenda, 53-37. Layer 1

Jan 28:

The insanity continues as Enterasys employees propel CEO and #15-seed Henry Fiallo to another crushing victory, this time a 799-64 defeat of #7-seed Tim Berners-Lee, director of the W3C. Fiallo will face #11-seed Harald Alverstand, chair of the IETF, in Round 3. Alverstand narrowly edged out #14-seed Drew Major, CEO of Volera, 262-212. Layer 3

Jan 25:

The improbable ride of TeleChoice President Christine Heckart, a #15 seed, continues as she advances over #10-seed Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a U.S. District Court judge, 132-73. Joining Heckart in Round 3 is Linux creator and #3-seed Linus Torvalds, who defeated #6-seed Ivan Seidenberg, co-CEO of Verizon, 135-50. Layer 2

Round 1:

Jan 24:

We end Round 1 on a dubious note with more voter fraud today. Someone seems to have programmed their machine to vote 136 extra times for John McHale. Eliminating the obvious fraudulent votes, #1-seed Craig Barrett of Intel defeated #16-seed John McHale, chairman and CEO of TippingPoint Technologies, 114-18. In our other match, things proceeded more orderly, with #4-seed Desh Deshpande, co-founder and chairman of Sycamore Networks, defeating #13-seed Dave Roberson, COO of Hitachi Data Systems, 109-43. Layer 1

Jan 23:

Cisco's John Chambers (#1 seed) rode his popularity to a 122-77 victory over #16-seed Paul Ferri, managing partner of Matrix Ventures. And CA CEO Sanjay Kumar (#13 seed) overcame an early deficit to upset #4-seed Sam Palmisano, president and COO of IBM, 184-59. Layer 4

Jan 22:

Predictability is setting in as we near the end of Round 1 with both top seeds surviving to play another day. #1-seed Scott McNealy of Sun defeated #16-seed Mark Floyd, the head of Siemens Information and Communications Networks, 61-26. Also, "Father of the Internet" Vint Cerf, a #5 seed, defeated #12-seed Bill Coleman, founder and chief strategy officer of BEA Systems, 65-22. Layer 3

Jan 18:

As expected, #1 seed Bill Gates dispatched #16-seed John Walecka, the founding partner of Redpoint Ventures, 103-27. However, #13-seed Phil Zimmermann, creator of PGP, upset #4-seed Ray Ozzie, CEO of Groove Networks and the brains behind Lotus Notes, 102-71. Layer 2

Jan 17:

Oracle big kahuna Larry Ellison advanced to the second round with a 69-26 victory over Interpact's Winn Schwartau, a #15 seed. In the battle of the phone, Nokia Pekka Ala-Pietila, a #10 seed, upset AT&T President David Dorman, a #7 seed, 58-35. Layer 1

Jan 16:

Another upset today as the #12-seed tag-team duo of Russ Holt and Randy Graves, the co-VPs of Dell's Enterprise Systems group, took out #5-seed Bill Friel, the senior VP and CIO of Prudential Financial, 44-19. Also, FCC Chairman Michael Powell (a #3 seed) defeated Procket Networks founder Toni Li (a #14 seed), 42-21. Layer 4

Jan 15:

Another upset in round 1 as #14-seed Drew Major of Volera knocked off #3-seed C. Michael Armstrong, the head of AT&T, 73-62. Our other match followed a more traditional path with #8-seed Tom Ridge, the director of Homeland Security, defeating Microsoft's Ben Waldman, a #9 seed, 85-39. Layer 3

Jan 14:

The king of Linux, #3-seed Linux Torvalds, easily defeated #14-seed Frank Dzubeck of Communications Network Architects, 186-25. In the other match, it looks like Cisco employees came out in support of their own as #5-seed Mario Mazzola crushed UNH Interoperability Lab Director and #12 seed Scott Valcourt, 350-44. Layer 2

Jan 11:

No upsets this time around as Michael Dell advanced over Couterpane's Bruce Schneier, 49-25, and the NSA's Lt. Gen. Michael defeated Juniper Chairman Scott Kriens, 43-31. Layer 4

Jan 10:

A rare event in our game: The two higher seeds advanced to the second round. Air Force Lt. General John Woodward defeated the Burton Group's David Passmore, 35-21, and UPS tech guy John Nallin delivered CIMI Corp.'s Tom Nolle to elimination, 42-16. Layer 1

Jan 9:

After eliminating some obvious voter fraud from our tallies, the IETF's Harald Alverstand defeated Microsoft's Eric Rudder, 69-21, and Web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee took out teleworker champion Tim Kane, 72-18. Layer 3

Jan 8:

Two upsets as TeleChoice's Christine Heckart (15 seed) beat #2 Lou Gertsner of IBM 221-98 while #9 Joe Nacchio of Qwest defeated Mike Brady of Merrill Lynch, 143-81. Layer 2

Jan 7:

Jeff Schiller of the IETF defeats Mike Lazardis of RIM, 31-21 and Ralph Syzgenda of General Motors beats Marc Benioff Salesforce.com of 35-17. Layer 1

Jan 4:

Sandra England of Network Associates beats Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom, 182-66 and Gary Reiner of GE beats Dennis Kirchoff of Ford, 130-44.

As in the matchup between Henry Fiallo of Enterasys and Greg Reyes of Brocade and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and Carly Fiorina of HP, employee voting once again won the day, this time for Sandra England of Network Associates, whose employees eked out enough time from squelching viruses to describe her as a haloed visionary who is kind to puppies. Also, Dennis Kirchoff of Ford seemed to lose votes to disgruntled Ford owners. Layer 4

Jan 3:

Greg Reyes of Brocade edges out Carly Fiorina of HP, 1030-1002 and Henry Fiallo of Enterasys creams Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, 1449-429. (No that's not a misprint on the final score.) Layer 3

Jan 2:

Ivan Seidenberg defeats Tom Siebel, 18-6 and Microsoft anti-trust judge Colleen Kolar-Kotelly edges out Jerry Parrick 14-10. Layer 2

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