Obviously, I wasn’t there, so I can’t report this as fact.
Long story short, the “guaranteed” $3,000 pot was reduced to $500 at the last minute, so the KOF players decided to walk out. Apparently this is not the first time this has happened with the Tournament Organisers and the same thing happened to other games.
Listen to what the Answer has to say about it at 36:00
Watch live video from theanswerkof on TwitchTV
And here’s another thread about the tournament organiser’s history, according to some figures in the community:
http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/john-nelson-tournament-legacy-and-team-hori.167166/