TAMPA, Fla. — Recreation means different things to different people.
For some, it's getting outside and enjoying sports or a picnic. For others, it's inside in front of a big TV playing video games.
Hillsborough County now has a recreation center offering an esports program.
Many kids love to do this in their free time, so it's important that Hillsborough County set aside this area as a safe place for kids to do esports with other kids and maybe learn something at the same time.
Robert Cruz is Hillsborough County's esports specialist. "The objective for this program is to be able to bring kids into a neutral space where they are able to express themselves with others, play games and bring them together with other kids who also enjoy the same type of games."
He helped pilot this program for the county last year when they installed all the equipment and gaming systems.
"When it comes to the games we have. We have two Nintendo Switches and two Xbox Series S. A lot of the games that we offer right now are cross-platform. This enables us to have one individual playing on a switch and one playing on an Xbox when there might be other players playing different games on those other systems."
Brothers Benny and Jackson love coming here.
"It's been pretty good. I've been playing Smash, maybe Fortnite. I haven't played Rocket League though or Mario Kart," Benny said.
Jackson likes it when he meets up with friends. "I honestly really enjoy it because of the fact that it teaches you communication skills and not only that, but it also is teaching you about like how to get over different situations with different solutions."