BTSC Story New02 #01 Ethan

BTSC reporter: Hello Ethan, thank you so much for joining us here at BTSC today.

BTSC reporter: You're famous around the worldwide Ingress community, but you haven't come to China. Can you introduce yourself to our audiences?

Ethan: Hey, yeah! Thanks for having me! I'm Ethan Lepouttre and I am more well known for the NL-1331 events I do around the world and probably not as well known for helping LATAM/NA agents with mission days.

BTSC reporter: Indeed less known as a helper behind scenes! That's some impressive medals! So when did you join the Ingress game?

Ethan: If I recall correctly sometime in late 2013. I may be off a few months.

BTSC reporter: I envy anyone with a Founder badge :p

Tell us about your favorite badge? And what's the deal behind the Bronze Mission Day badge when you helped with so many Mission Days?

Ethan: My favorite badge has to be the Recursion anomaly badge. Mostly because it was the first one they offered for an anomaly

Ethan: Yeah so I think at this point I've helped agents organize about 100 mission days but for me the act of actually doing missions is not my most favorite part of the game. Also I really like the design of the orange MD badge and don't want to lose it

BTSC reporter: I agree! Recursion is very cool and actually one of the most unattainable badge for Chinese agents. And orange MD badge is my favorite, too. (If only the older one……

BTSC reporter: Can you share with us how did you join Niantic as a staff, though? What brought you to them, and what's the process feel like?

Ethan: Well my joining Niantic is a long story. The short version is that I started traveling the West coast attending several anomalies. That eventually led me to meeting my current boss. Our first interaction was very brief but about a week later I received a G plus message from him asking for my phone number. I was a little Leary at first but sent my number and about an hour later he called me asking if I was interested in a short term job on a new project Niantic was working on. That project turned out to be NL-1331. Fast forward 5 years later and NL is still incredibly popular And I find my self as a legit full time employee at Niantic..... go figure 😃

Ethan: I will admit it's been a pretty amazing experience growing up with Niantic. Which started at maybe 25-30 employees to now a company of over 250 people.

BTSC reporter: Incredibly popular would be an understatement!

BTSC reporter: So that brought us to the central topic of today - can you introduce what'sNL-1331 to Chinese agents who're not familar with it? How did it begin? What's the van like, and the event.

Ethan: So NL-1331 started as a part of the ingress story line but it really turned into something much more. The strpy line almost takes a backseat to what NL-1331 is now. That is to say I think NL is an amazing tool to reach out to communities that maybe have never had an anomaly or feel like they are too small to receive attention from Niantic. Of course we go to big cities but in between those we always try to visit smaller communities that the larger ingress community may not be aware of their existence.

Ethan: The events are designed to be very casual and laid back. We always encourage agents of all skill level and length of time playing to join and meet the rest of their local community that they may not know is out there or they've been to nervous to contact by themselves.

BTSC reporter: Going through NL-1331 venues in North America is definitely a good geographic lesson and I admire the noble cause for the NL-1331 event.

BTSC reporter: It started as a US event but now across the world, tell us what brought the events to the world wide? How many countries have you been for NL-1331 event?

Ethan: So yeah it started in America. Which was logical because that's where we were are all mostly based in the beginning. But we started to see a flourishing community in Europe and Asia. I tried to convince my boss at a much earlier point that we needed to expand or area of influence and initially that was met with a bit of resistance (no pun intended). I was eventually able to convince my boss to let me go to Europe and try out the same format. That turned out to be a very successful move. That I turn gave my boss confidence to let me start exploring places in Asia. Thanks to a lot of help from local agents and test run in the Philippines we find ourself continuously expanding our range of influence.

Ethan: I'm not sure I remember how many countries I've been to but it's probably around 40 or so

Ethan: Maybe 50ish

BTSC reporter: That's amazing record! Do you have a favorite country (or a few?)

BTSC reporter: And I'm curious - in many countries there're local version of vans, what's your favorite van and can you tell us how many versions were created?

Ethan: Well to be honest the truest NL van is obviously the big one in America. Then we have several temporary versions for Asian countries and Europe.

Ethan: I have several that enjoy quite a bit. Mostly it's cities that I fall in love with. My favorite city is Prague. A few the follow close behind are Lviv, Valencia, Amsterdam, Bangkok, and Luxembourg.

Ethan: I don't know the exact number of versions created but I think it's about 10

BTSC reporter: Speaking of US van, when Niantic was spinned off from Google I heard the van was MIA for a while, was it a hard time for you? After all, the event revolves around the iconic van. And how did you get a new one?

Ethan: Well it was a hard time. I think the future of the NL project was in serious jeopardy. There where a lot of unkowns for everyone at that time. Through a little bit of due diligence and convincing we were able to get funding and allowed to keep the van. NL was on a short leash at the time. But as we rebounded from the spin-off we felt more comfortable expanding the NL project.

BTSC reporter: Must be a big accomplishment to not only bring it back and even expanding it!

Ethan: Yeah I feel proud of where we are vs where we came from

BTSC reporter: With the expansions around the world you are in some serious, maybe even insane - I'd say - schedules. Like last March you were in Taiwan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka then Thailand, how did you juggle the schedules?

Ethan: It's difficult and those didn't happen mistake free. They first ones are always a learning experience. Such as customs and lead times to produce country specific merch. But I had a lot of help from local pocs. This can be said for all countries. If it wasn't for the help of local agents we probably wouldn't be able to do a lot of what we do.

BTSC reporter: Very true, all events happen with both dedicated Niantic staff, and local agents I'd say. It seems many of them love to be your traffic victim! Wanna say how do you feel about them? Haha.

Ethan: Hahahahah one of my most favorite things to post was the agent pictures of them being run over by the van. Sadly legal says I can't post those anymore. Lol

BTSC reporter: Ugh spoilers! And there's the famous (or infamous) #NL1331 cover portal image, where and when did it happen? Is that your only accident in driving the van?

Ethan: I actually wasn't driving the van at the time but no matter how many times I say

that nobody believes me. The cover photo is from Interitus Gettysburg.

Ethan: 😂

BTSC reporter: Hard time…… And long time back then!

BTSC reporter: Care to share with us more fun stories and anecdotes about the van and events?

Ethan: You know to be honest I don't have a lot of fun stories regarding riding in the van most of my experiences really happen outside the van interacting with the community. Many of nights have I spent too many hours drinking at the bar with agents.

Ethan: I have met a lot of amazing people all over and many of those people I now consider very real friends

BTSC reporter: Socialzing is always the best part…… Do I count as one, too? 😜

Ethan: Of course

BTSC reporter: Glad knowing your agent side - as a serious RES agent before joining NIA, how do you balance your role between being agent and being staff? Do you feel being an active agent sometimes dragging you in fulfilling your job?

Ethan: That's a balance I've struggled with for a long time and over the past 2 years or so I feel like I've found that balance of very casual gameplay while focusing most of my energy into the NL events. It helps to promote a unbiased image and that unfortunately means I can't be as agressive in my game play like I used to be when I was just an agent

BTSC reporter: Happy knowing this! As a wrap up of questions from us today, can you share some prospect of NL-1331 project and future expansions with us? What do you see in NL-1331 evolving in a few years?

Ethan: That's a really good question and I can only speculate on where we go next. I think in terms of my available bandwidth there are more places that I would like to visit than we have days in the year. But our next logical move is start exploring South America which has been long overdue for NL events. I think my dream scenario is to have several vans running in parallel with each other with several different pilots while I coordinate events from HQ. It's hard though because I've worked so hard to get NL to where it is now and I'm having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I need to let go so that we can bring the experience to the  broader community.

BTSC reporter: That would be some serious evolvement and I'm looking forward to that as much as yours.

BTSC reporter: That brings us to the agent Q&A time XD

BTSC reporter: We got questions overwhelming about one thing - will NL come to all Greater China region?
Returns to Taiwan? Going to Hong Kong and Macau? Or - the China mainland?

Ethan: I actually spoke to Hilda one of the APAC community managers and we have a loose plan to visit Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea in November.

BTSC reporter: Tell us what's your favorite Chinese food and then will you come to China as an agent for some fun?

Ethan: Sweet and sour pork is one of my favorite dishes. I'm not sure if that's authentic Chinese.

Ethan: I think Niantic has big plans for the future and I can't say anything but those plans will dictate when I come to China. I did come to Beijing a few years back and enjoyed my time there.  As for when I'll come back as an agent that's tough to say.

BTSC reporter: Anytime it'll be serious fun.
The last question - is it really that awesome to drive with flip-flops?

Ethan: Ha! Short answer....yes it is.

BTSC reporter: 🤣

Ethan: My flip flop collection is real!🤣

BTSC reporter: That's all our interview with Ethan Lepouttre today! Thank you so much, Ethan for bringing us all the in depth and candid answers. Wish NL-1331 and you a prospect future!

Ethan: Thanks it was my pleasure.