Vitanis tree

I'm kinda trying to be a bit more active on other pages than just deviantArt, so I made a quick picture to submit to the archive-wide contest on TLKFAA. It's been a loooong time since I've made TLK fan-art.... Hopefully you can recognise the characters lol

The contests' theme is"Finding Light in the Darkness" fanart.lionking.org/Special/?+…

Here's my contest-description of my entry:

"Vitani always acts like such a tough cub, but at the end of TLK2 she kinda softens. I think she's always been secretly quite nurturing, patient and reasonable, but the bitter life with Zira and the outlanders just demanded of her to be hard and cold.

This is Kovu finding out that she's secretly caring for a little tree-sprout in a hidden-away chamber of the termite mound. She's embarassed and fearful that Zira will punish her, but Kovu being a fan of all things fabulous just think the plant is the prettiest thing he's ever seen. 

The little tree was a glimmer of life and hope to the cubs, something to distract them from the otherwise harsh life in the outlands."


I HAVE A QUESTION THOUGH

So the archive contest is set to "anonymous" so anyone who enters is anonymous. Is this to protect the artists, or to avoid a "popularity contest"? Because you can still see the piece in the artist's gallery? So is it just so people who are already popular don't get votes just because they are already popular? My real question is: Is it bad that I left my signature in the image? Am I cheating? Will the name of the winner be announced or will it still be anonymous? If not then it kinda seems to me that the artists aren't getting proper credit?
 
...I just kinda don't get it