Street Fighter 6 Community Rocked by AI Art Controversy

Welcome to the world in 2025, folks.

Capcom recently launched an art competition in Street Fighter 6, where it tasked its uber-talented community to come up with artwork for each character, with the winning entries eventually intended to be added to the ‘Here Comes a New Challenger’ screen.

The final selections were recently uploaded to the fighter’s official website, with players encouraged to vote for an overall winner. There’s some amazing work here, and all would be worthy of victory.

Well, except one.

Fans noticed that Kimberley’s winning entry demonstrated artifacting and irregularities consistent with the use of AI. The creator, Lilithascends on X (or Twitter), subsequently nuked their social media presence after the accusations started to circulate, which some assumed to be an admission of guilt.

Now Capcom has commented on the situation, and confirmed it will be disqualifying the submission:

“We want to extend a big thanks to everyone who participated in the latest Street Fighter Art Contest New Challenger Edition. Unfortunately, we have determined that one of the winning entries violated contest rules, specifically Section 5 pertaining to: Entry Submission and Design Requirements.

“After careful review and discussion, we have decided to disqualify the entry in question.

“Please note that the entry in question will remain available for voting in the Battle Hub until the end of the voting period. We want to thank those who participated in voting for the entry in question. While the entry in question has been disqualified, we will provide a replacement illustration for the featured character at a later date.”

Unfortunately, this is just a sign of the times.

Capcom’s intention was entirely innocent here, and it did stipulate in the rules of the competition that AI was not allowed, but this entry still slipped through the cracks.

The good news here is that it’s done something about it, as it’d be unfair to keep this generated creation in the competition when other artists had worked tirelessly and independently on their own submissions.

If there’s one positive to come out of all this, it’s that an alternative Kimberley artwork will get added to the game, allowing a real artist to receive the exposure they deserve.