From what I heard, Lightning Dom leads actually had to fund part of the battle out of their own pocket because the Vault didn't have enough money. Either that or they were trying to preserve the Vault for ... something next year? No idea. It seems antithesinal (... is this even a word? like the antithesis) to what the Vault is for, i.e., funding conquests, so I hope that they simply ran out of money.
Re: To lightning