I've never personally had this type of failure, but the condition you are looking at is called "channeling" or "guttering". It can be caused by localized hot spots in the combustion chamber. Hard carbon deposits or anti-knock additives contribute to this condition.
Did you find any unusual deposits in the combustion chambers?
These valves are from a natural gas fueled, spark ignited, turbocharged large bore industrial engine. so no additives. the spark plus and combustion chamber were both covered with what appears to be "weld splatter". The top of the piston shows signs of Melting around the top edge but the rings were not wasted YET!