It could work I think as long as they kept the requirements for each submission to-the-point otherwise it could get messy:
1) Drawn picture of the character in their C1 (and C2 but that's optional) and his/her/it's name
2) Fighting style name and no more than 2-3 sentences explaining the fighting style
3) The story of the character and why they've joined the tournament and any relationships to current DOA characters (no more than 3-4 sentences)
They could create an online form for entrants to add their pics/info and then upload it.
View attachment 6549
As you can tell I've been thinking about this for a while...
The only problem would be if the submission was typed in a language other than Japanese or English (not sure what the solution for that would be...).
Wouldn't they have to also select a small amount of original fighters though, because of the design costs?