Da 40 Miners are proud members of the Big Ten. They played exclusively with the other Big Ten teams for years. The team is comprised of only Union works from the ‘Miners Local 040′ coal mining union within the Mine’Shakin Mountains. The Union and it’s workers have always been very proud of the team. Da Miners had their share of success in the Big Ten, but money was still getting tight, and supporting the team was getting harder for the union. They were faced with the decision of either folding the team, or sending them out on the road to join the tournament scene that was springing up all over the place.
In ’04 they went out and played in their first tournament and would finish in 4th place. Bringing home a nice amount of money the team was again able to continue playing in the Big Ten. But more important then the money was the fame they gained. People outside of the Big Ten were standing up and taking notice of this talented group of dwarves. The union couldn’t contain their pride in the team and started putting into place a way to get the team to more tournaments. It would take two years of planning and preparation but finally in the fall of ’06 they were able to put together the funds to send the team out on a full tournament schedule. The tournament squad is comprised of the best players the miners have to offer. The tournament squad tends to bring in more money and fame then the league squad and because of that has begun to get most of the attention from the union.
As their success at tournaments grew and they even won a few tournaments, their fame grew as well. This convinced some of the other Big Ten teams to follow the path of the Miners and put together their own tournament squads.
The franchise today is divided into 3 squads, the Tournament squad, the League squad, and the Scout squad. There are 40 players employed by the team at all times, divided amongst the three squads. The tournament squad gets most of the attention and a lot of fans don’t bother following the league squad any more as it is far more important to have the rest of the world know of your greatness, rather then just ten other dwarf teams. The team has started awarding tournament caps to players. For every tournament a player has played in they are awarded a tournament Cap. At this point the leader in Caps is the only Miner to appear in every tournament the Miners have played in, the teams Captain ‘Golden Toe’ Joe.
