Since the formation of the Fresno State Paintball team three months ago, the squad has developed rapidly.

Although the team has yet to win a tournament, the experience on the paintball field has enabled the paint ball members to gain new skills.

The 12-man group recently played a tournament at Maximum Paintball The Field on Sunday for The Maximum Paintball League Off Season Rookie Series. This time, the “rookies” of the team played the tournament. Mason Stewart, Michael Boothby, and Ben Manuszak sat out the tournament because they have experience as semiprofessional and professional players.

This was the first time the team played without the three players — and didn’t make it to semifinals.

For Connor Cunningham, who plays a front-man position, the experience was great.

“It was fun to see how much we’ve grown without their help and how we have to now rely on each other and not rely on the skills of the better players,” Cunningham said.

In November, the team traveled to Las Vegas to participate in its first tournament at the West Coast Paintball Players League, but had a 1-3 record and came home empty-handed.

“It was half of our guys’ first tournament ever,” Stewart said. “All of our matches were basically decided by one point.”

Stewart said they played well.

Not winning, however, didn’t let Cunningham get his spirits down. He said he felt OK with the effort.

“Knowing that this was our first tournament this was just a chance for us to learn and see what a tournament is run like,” Cunningham said. “I just really kind of wanted to absorb it and take it all in.”

In three months, the team has shown quick progress, Stewart said. The WCPPL came quickly for the team, which left a shorter period of time to coach the team. Though they weren’t sure how much they would absorb before the tournament, but many were surprised to see how well they played, Stewart said.

“All the guys that play here locally all the time, even our sponsors they can see a huge difference,” Stewart said.

For Cunningham, it is a learning experience. As a player, he said he feels he is improving.

“I’ve improved greatly. I went in one type of player and came out a completely different type of player. It was just from all the experience and the coaching that I had received,” said Cunningham, after playing at WCPPL.

“They’ve all stepped up big time and learned as much as they could learn,” Stewart said. “All these guys — the three months since tryouts, they’ve all grown so much.”

“To see them start at where they did and progress as high as they did, is amazing. Anyone that’s out there knows that what he or they’ve done in the short amount of time that what they’ve done isn’t something that’s normal. So they’ve been able to progress at a high rate a lot faster than a lot of other players do,” Stewart said.

The next step for the Fresno State Paintball team is heading to Long Beach in January for their first official college tournament. Five or six teams are expected to participate in the collegiate paintball tournament.

In April the team will head to Lakeland, Fla., for the 2013 College and High School Paintball National Championships.