My two cents are that those entries should be Disqualified, not only do they entirely lack originality and are complete rip.off's i'd like to cite a case rmember briefly some months ago with the DoTA 2 the release of the hammer which was completely taken from AION in this ase there ere people inadvertedly being scammed, and a community being riped off isn't a nice thing.

In any case SE can't and won't worry for any possible legal action against them if any of this rings win, but adding them as in game assets does set a dangerous precedent to the possibility of having further contests where entries go even further than that and completely steal conceptual art or designs from other game media.

In this case i'd wouldn't be surprised if the original artist if he/she caught wind of it could very well ask for a removal of said asset, if his reproduction rights and intellectual rights over said design hadn't been sold to square something that would eventually only hurt the community of FFXiV.

Thirdly as a Design Major who's been in both the competing end and on the judge committee of contest as this, it's disappointing to see how people with no cretivity at all submit artwork as their own when all ghy are doing is tracing over someone's else design and painting different color.

Bullshit like this is even worse if one of this rings ends up winning the contest, it's a constant reminder of how the committee has one of the worse researchers out there, it's a simple google search of final fantasy ring..... and you find no.6

These guys whoever they are, can only be blamed of unimaginative and unscrupulous artists, however professional community manager and committee that's supposed to screen this type of thing is always present in contests as this, and the fact that rings like this make it to the final, can only mean someone's not doing their job the right way