The nineteen year old from Ontario, Canada is a member of the wave of younger Quake players with Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski, Alexei "Cypher" Yanushevsky or Shane "rapha" Hendrixson.

An underdog, he took a well-deserved third place in the most prestigious event he has competed in. And while some would say that his performance was a fluke, griffin himself is hungry for more.

"Third place is never enough," he says. "I always wanted to take home first place. Each event I attend I see improvements in my game and placing. Third place is still a nice finish for me and I'm happy with my finish."

The Canadian only lost to the winner and the runner up of the tournament, Cypher and John "ZeRo4" Hill. He took a map from ZeRo4 but the Belarussian player was in a league of his own.

"Cypher was really good for his lack of practice in QuakeLive and it didn't seem to afffect this game [at QuakeCon] at all," says griffin adding that he was the only player that impressed him because he knew what his other opponents were capable of.

Griffin himself impressed as well thanks to the speed of rockets in QuakeLive. The Canadian showed outstanding rocket launcher skill and hit airrockets in almost every match that he played in. He should do even better in future QuakeLive events because QuakeCon was not a priority for him.

"I'm more focused on the ESWC finals and how I perform there," he explains. "QuakeLive is still new. If tournaments pick it up, I'll put more time into my game and take aside time for it so I can improve as much as I can."

His main problem before the tournament in San Jose is a job at a coffee shop which eats away a lot of his time. Perhaps not for long, though.

"I work too much to practice like everyone else going. Whenever I have time to play I take advatage of it. I might be quitting [my job] or taking a lot of time off in the weeks [before] ESWC so I can go LAN and train for the finals as I want to have a good showing."

Most top players will treat the ESWC Grand Final very seriously as it will most likely be the last major event held for Quake 3 this year. It might be the last one for griffin as well.

"It all depends on the tournaments that come around, if any," he says. "I want to start to focus on school for next year. Other than that I will just be working.

It would be with a loss to the scene if he quit as his growth as a player is evident, even by how he behaves outside of the game as well. Two years ago the closeness of beautiful women made him shy.

Last weekend, his response to being kissed by a model during the QuakeCon decoration ceremony was a confident smile.