Hello Explorers!
We’re absolutely bursting with excitement to finally announce our amazing Cohort 4 of Wayfarer Ambassadors! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all applicants and for your incredible patience as we meticulously reviewed the overwhelming number of applications. We were truly blown away by your passion for exploration and your genuine desire to give back to this incredible community.
Get ready to give a huge, warm welcome to our newest Wayfarer Ambassadors!
Hi Wayfarer Community,
My username is AliceWonder1511 (she/her) and I’m living in Germany’s Ruhrgebiet. Since 2023 I’ve been playing Pokémon Go and since 2024 I’ve been participating in the Wayfarer program and its wonderful community.
To be chosen as an Ambassadors gives me the warm feeling that thoughts and opinions by newer wayfinder (-> non official term) are welcome. Me as a person you can expect someone humourful and open minded who prefers respectful treatment.
I love to help and direct through the jungle of information. I love the exchange of a worldwide community and f.e. to learn about a famous sports activity in Peru. I love that we’re digitalizing our whole world together and to think about how to use a digital world.
For my year as an Ambo I’m happy to use these skills and to support this community as a place of welcome. I’m looking forward to “work” together with new and experienced users and everyone in between, as well as the Niantic Team behind the curtain.
Hi everyone. I am Tntnnbltn from Australia, and I am glad to be returning to the Wayfarer Ambassador group for 2025. I began playing in 2016 and first started contributing to Wayfarer (then known as ‘Operation Portal Recon’) in 2017. Since then I’ve had over 2600 Wayspots approved, plus another >3000 approved photos and edits. I was one of the Cohort 1 Ambassadors, during which time we worked with Niantic across a range of issues including criteria, communication, challenges and issues related to abuse. One of my personal focuses was on documenting bugs and issues related to Wayfarer, with the aim of improving the nomination and reviewing flow for users. It is always a satisfying feeling when a minor but annoying bug finally gets resolved! I am looking forward to continuing that work in 2025.
Hello! I’m GrandpaTP, from the rural-suburban hills of Northwest New Jersey. I’ve been playing Pokémon Go since 2019 and became a Wayfarer in 2020. Since then, I’ve trained a local Wayfarer team that has successfully submitted over 500 nominations.
In addition to Pokémon Go, I enjoy playing Monster Hunter Now, though Wayfarer has become my primary focus. During Raid Hour, you’ll often find me sharing my weekly adventures and assisting others with nominations in their local areas. When the weather is nice, I’m exploring trails in state parks or consulting the park staff to discover Points of Interest (POIs). On less favorable days, I delve into trail maps and satellite imagery from my computer.
As an Ambassador, I look forward to collaborating with fellow ambassadors to “spread the wealth” of knowledge and experience I’ve gained, helping others refine their submission skills. I’m also eager to contribute to clarifying criteria and enhancing the overall experience for the community.
Hello from Indonesia, my Niantic id is fr34kz (I used that for most of Niantic game, except for Pokemon GO where I used bebekgenitz as my trainer id). Some of you might be aware that I have taken part as one of the ambassadors from cohort 1 back in 2022. Being a part of the wayfarer as ambassador had been a great experience. The thing that I love the most is how we could help the wayfarer community by listening and extending the community concern to the wayfarer team.
As well as how ambassadors could be there to help answer some basic questions regarding their nominations.
I’m looking forward to that and more in the future to come, where I could be useful for community as well as good communication with the wayfarer team.
Hola from Mexico, I’m LeFinalBoss, I have been using Wayfarer since it was made available to Pokemon GO players in 2019. I really enjoy being able to propose new waypoints and evaluate them, as it helps build communities for people to play where previously there may have been none.
After visiting a small town an hour from my home, I made it my mission to try and add new waypoints for the residents, as they had just 1 lonely Pokéstop in the whole town. After a few months, I was thrilled to see that a small community of players were active, now that they had a handful of Pokéstops and 3 gyms. Being able to help communities grow, and enjoy the games we love brought me great joy.
I chose to become a wayfarer ambassador to encourage others to help us add more to the games we love through our joint efforts in submitting and evaluating. I look forward to working and learning together, to make the Wayfarer experience as easy and fun as possible for everyone.
Hi there, I’m 1valdis (or, simpler, just “valdis”), and I’m from Ukraine. I’ve been playing Ingress for about a decade. I’ve participated in many things and organized countless operations and field arts, including being an intel operator for the world’s first true level 7 homogeneous field. My first independent trip to another city was for an Ingress Mission Day, and my first trip abroad was for an Ingress Anomaly and NL-1331, so I guess Ingress is an integral part of my life now, ha. I decided to apply for the Wayfarer Ambassador Program because I’ve participated in what was earlier Operation Portal Recon from its very beginning. I used to make small trips to neighboring towns and villages every few weeks just to submit POI there. My latest participation in Wayfarer includes completing challenges at maximum individual tiers (gimme that shiny OPR Live, ha), and quality scanning wayspots to activate them in games - that’s how I also ended up in VPS Activators Pilot. I hope that my perspective from a country facing invasion will be valuable for Niantic, that I will have a say on some future decisions before they are finalised, and that I will be able to improve and share my knowledge on proper and effective scanning, so everybody gets to Overclock.
Hello, AgentX1976 here. I hale from the great state of Idaho in Northwestern United States. I took up Ingress in its early days and have been submitting points of Interest since November 2013. Going through the process since the very beginning I have seen Wayfarer grow from vague criteria to Operation OPR to what Wayfarer is today. I am excited to help bring in whatever is next for the Wayfarer community. I enjoy exploring areas that might not get a lot of players and help build out their area with great PoI in order to interact with however they choose to interact with it.
Why I chose to become a Wayfarer Ambassador:
I have been an active player in Niantic games for many years, starting with Pokémon GO in 2016 and Ingress in 2018. Since 2018, I have been actively submitting and reviewing Wayspots, helping improve the quality and accuracy of the map. As a dedicated member of my local community, I am passionate about guiding and educating other players on nomination criteria and best practices. I also have strong leadership skills and a natural ability to bring people together, which has allowed me to create and maintain a welcoming and engaged community. Becoming a Wayfarer Ambassador is a natural extension of my commitment to exploration and community engagement.
Beyond gaming, I am a woman in my forties, a mother of two teenage daughters, and someone who loves diversifying my experiences, both professionally and personally. I obtained my medical doctorate in 2012 but continue to study at university, currently pursuing literature. In my free time, I enjoy skiing and practicing classical ballet, two passions that bring balance to my busy life.
What I am looking forward to the most about being a Wayfarer Ambassador:
I am most excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Niantic and fellow Ambassadors to enhance the Wayfarer experience. I look forward to sharing my insights from the francophone community, contributing to discussions on improving nomination and review processes, and helping new Explorers navigate Wayfarer. I have been participating in Niantic in-person events since 2019, and I truly value the connections built through these experiences. I am eager to continue fostering these connections both virtually and in real life as an Ambassador. The chance to beta test new features and provide feedback is also something I greatly value.
Hello!
I’m SemTheBeast (@Skemlord) from the Netherlands.
Having reviewed Wayspots for over six years now, I applied to become a Wayfarer Ambassador in order to help others and give guidance so that together we improve the system. You can usually find me at various community events related to Ingress, where I’m always open to helping fellow players answer their questions or be of any assistance to them.
Let’s make Wayfarer better together!
Why you chose to become a Wayfarer Ambassador:
A few years ago I reached the level in Ingress that made me eligible to nominate new Portals. I was excited, but also nervous because I knew there was a test and I had to know and follow the rules. I started pouring over the resources I could find from Niantic. Then I also found a Wayfarer subreddit. That was a huge resource to me because I could see what other people had questions about. I read everything there for a few weeks before submitting my first Wayspot nomination - I’d learned not to mention game specific things!
Eventually I found additional resources like the Niantic Wayfarer forum, the Wayfarer Discussion Discord, and the Wayspotters podcast.
Ultimately I am still learning but I feel like it’s time for me to start giving back to the community.
What are you looking forward to the most about being a Wayfarer Ambassador:
I am really looking forward to working with Ambassadors (new and old) and Niantic on improvements behind the scenes. I believe it’s really important to have the Ambassadors as a connection point between the larger community and Niantic themselves. Not only will I be able to continue connecting with people on the Forums to help. But I can take that back directly to Niantic when problems are identified.
Oh and maybe some swag too 
Greetings & Salutations! I’m Griffinfinity from Southern California. I’ve been a Wayfarer since 2019. My biggest accomplishment is creating over 2,000 Wayspots and helping to expand gameplay into new areas. Wayfarer has been a fun hobby that combines my passions for photography, local history, and finding cool things. I’m always happy when I see players of all ages using Wayspots that I’ve created to play their games. I’ve decided to become a Wayfarer Ambassador because I want to provide a voice for all the volunteers who spend their free time submitting and reviewing. I know the joys and I know the woes of Wayfarer. I hope to give my insights and help improve Wayfarer for everyone.
Once again, thank you all who applied and we are incredibly excited to partner with our new cohort of Wayfarer Ambassadors.
-The Wayfarer Team