It actually involved a rogue crew from Rochester, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, The Colombos, The Buffalinos, and to a lesser extent the Genovese family
The Rochester crew wanted to break away from Buffalo. It should have been an internal issue easilly settled internally and with the commission, except other familes either took sides or saw the chance to plant a flag on Buffalo areas in the fog of the chaos.
In the end, Pittsburgh balked, the Rchester crew imploaded, the genovese family lost interest, and the colombos and Buffalinos failed to take over and split Upstate NY state east of Rochester as they had planned. Buffalo won the war but it has never been the same since.