Former Counter-Strike: Source pro Carson "classifed" Holt passes away at 36

Retired Counter-Strike: Source professional player Carson "classified" Holt has passed away at the age of 36, NRG Senior Director of Content and esports veteran David "DchozN" Cho confirmed last night on X. A cause of death has not been made public at this time.

classified, like many players of his generation, often go unmentioned by the wider esports community as those who decided to dedicate their time to Counter-Strike: Source are often overlooked in the annals of Counter-Strike history compared compared to contemporaries in Counter-Strike 1.6 or those who came after them in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

However, for those who were around to witness the rise and fall of "CSS" in North America, players like classified are fondly remembered for their contributions to the NA scene and to the growing esports industry in general.

classified began his playing career in 2007 with Zomblerz, an iconic tag in NA Source scene that would serve as Holt's home in-between organizations. During this first year in his professional playing career, classified would attend CPL Summer and CPL Winter, notching a top-four finish in both premier NA events while rubbing shoulders with the likes of future Fragadelphia founder Stephen "sasquatcH" Csikos, Keven "AZK" Larivière, and Todd "anger" Williams.

In 2008, after Cyberathlete Professional League shut its doors, classified would have the chance to join the Championship Gaming Series, a decadent and flashy esports league run by DirectTV, being drafted by Dallas Venom before being ultimately cut without playing a single match ahead of the 2008 season.

While this was likely heartbreaking at the time, classified's playing career would outlast the CGS as it folded shortly after the 2008 season due to the global financial crisis. With CPL and CGS both fading away, CEVO and ESEA Invite became the stomping grounds of the NA Source scene, with classified being a regular in their online and offline events.

classified qualified to the ESEA Invite Finals on five occasions from 2009 to 2011, traveling to the esports "Mecca" of Dallas at the time, the Dallas DoubleTree Hilton hotel ballroom. At this venue, classified and various squads over the year would notch multiple top-four, while unfortunately victory would elude Holt and his crew.

Outside of Zomblerz, classified represented a number of organizations of varying size (and financial stability) including Blight, CheckSix, Gravitas, eMazing, and Demonic.

Like many players of his generation, Holt's career would begin to wind down upon the release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, in spite of classified being an early pioneer of the game after making the jump to Valve's new title in 2012. His final team of note during this time was Frost where he competed alongside Mohamad "m0E" Assad and a young Ryan "freakazoid" Abadir before being displaced in favor of fellow CGS alumnus Yaz "clowN" Ammari and a 16-year-old Timothy "autimatic" Ta.

Unfortunately, this story of classified is missing many chapters and intimate moments as much of Source's history is lost due to the demise of GotFrag and Cadred, leaving much of this time as an oral history only known by those who had the privilege of playing with classified and his generation of players. Some of his colleagues shared their memories of classified below:

In honor of his legacy as a player of their generation and to share memories of those times, DchozN told Dust2.us that he is planning a charity tournament to support Holt's family in the wake of his tragic passing.

Dust2.us will share details of the charity tournament when they are made public.