There has been a lot of hype behind the new poker league that Federated Sports and Gaming (FS+G) has been working on. After all, this will be the first league where only invited professionals will be competing, and it’s represented by one of the game’s most famous personalities in Annie Duke. Unfortunately, the league will also fly under the banner of one of the lamest names of all-time: the Epic Poker League.
Seriously!? Was the Best Ever Poker League or Number One Poker League already taken? Is there a 10-year-old on the FS+G board that drew the duty of naming this league? If there was a top toolbag among poker organizations, the Epic Poker League already takes the cake without having seen a tournament take place.
FS+G Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Grosman gave a perfectly unsatisfactory explanation for why the league offers one of the cheesiest names ever as he said, “This is no ordinary tournament league. Our fields will be some of the toughest in poker history, and we expect the competition to be nothing less than epic. In selecting a name that could live up to the players’ incredible skill and talent, epic was a natural fit.”
Okay, after reading this quote, I’m still not even close to satisfied on the naming of this league. However, I am interested to see how the league does since nothing like it has been tried in the past. For the most part, the player fields will be filled with recognizable names from around the globe, and we won’t be seeing Mr. Joe-Schmo-who-won-a-prize-package getting camera time in the Epic Poker League events either.
Maybe this organization can survive its uninspired name to deliver some excellent poker TV. On the other hand, maybe the Epic Poker League will go down as the XFL of the poker world. They’ve already got a good start towards this with the name…
