As universities across America step up efforts to grow eSports – including offering scholarships and departments – Korean eSport company ROX Gaming has launched a gaming academy looking to move eSport growth into the more private sector.

This move is in line with a massive surge in 2016-2017 in eSport growth and activity including CS:GO’s deal with TBS, Rocket League’s marketing efforts and parternships, and Blizzard signing with numerous sports owners.

Though ROX Gaming may be the first Korean academy for eSports, it is hardly the first academy in just this year. April saw Singapore Cybersports and Online Gaming Association (Scoga) teaming up with Twitch to create classes and training programs to create the next generation of e-thletes.

In February, Malaysia’s Asia Pacific University (APU) partnered with the Malaysian governing sports league to create an academy to train reflexes, styles, understanding, and skills.

France and Finland have also joined the fray adding their own training regimens and academies to the growing list of countries and groups looking to train the next generation of e-thletes.

To those that don’t follow eSports, this may come as some surprise, but since 2016, the entire world has been shifting attention to gaming and eSports in particular. There were already the previously mentioned network deals, but ESPN – an organization notoriously reluctant to embrace eSports – has also created an eSport division to show their faith in the movement.

ESport teams are also beginning to undergo training and management at the same level as traditional sports. A huge name in American eSports – Counter Logic Gaming – recently started conditioning players in ice showers in much the way traditional athletes do. The talent management agency IMG also stepped in. Traditionally a group that rented its facilities to superstars like Andre Agassi, IMG opened its Florida doors to eSports in May of 2016.

Whether or not e-thletes will need the same rigorous training and care of traditional athletes has yet to be seen, but eSport organizations and teams are doing everything in their power to be taken seriously, and in 2017, the world finally seems to be taking them seriously.