i know this news couldnt come at a worse time but it has to be said before someone in the challange looses more than some hardware due to the possiblity of fire.
 
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/evga-gtx-1080-1070-overheating-issue/
 
All EVGA GTX 1080 and 1070 cards with the dual-fan ATX cooler use the same design and thus suffer from the issue and could catching fire due to no active cooling on their VRMs. if you have an effected modle reduce the power limit and get with EVGA for a thermalpad kit. 
 
http://www.evga.com/thermalmod/
 
UPDATE:

howdy2u2
You are combining 2 separate issues:
1) Temperatures on the PCB because of a "torture test" using stress tests not recommended by nVidia on the Pascal GPU. EVGA also states their testing method and again states that the temperatures are with in tolerable limits of said hardware. EVGA is addressing those who are concerned with the temperatures by providing thermal pads to help dissipate the heat more evenly. (It's all in the 10xx forum section you'll have to dig for it) 
 
2) VRM's giving up the ghost/ sparking/ letting the smoke out (what ever you want to say) Again EVGA posted a statement saying that some VRMs were not to spec (4% affected) and failing, they even identified the maker of said VRMs in a post (again, I am not going to dig it up in the 10xx forum section) EVGA has also stated (in a post in that section) that they have corrected this issue.
 
These 2 issues have been intertwined in almost every thread in the 10xx forum section.
That's all I have to say on the issue, take it for what it's worth.

ah, thanks for the clarification. i saw that they are giving away thermal pads and said 3rd party article made it sound a lot worse than it really is. i haven't had to time to dig up other threads and find the details behind it all and just posted this thread after reading it. but its good to know that not all said GPU's are effected by the failure, only a very small fraction, but they are offering the thermal pads to help elevate some concern of the issue.

There are a few threads in the GeForce 10 Series section and also a response from EVGATech_AndrewA in one of the threads:
Manufacturing fix for hot VRM issues?

Ya, that section is soo active i do not visit it often so i thought i would post this here for those like me.

Well at least the TZC will give all them Cards a Good Test Run.
But lets keep any issues within PM and not post any issue here on the Forums.
Their is more than enough on the Forum now.
Lets not bring the issue over here that is.
Maybe you can rename your Title and remove the VRM.

I didnt want to bring the issue here as much as bring awareness to the issue.

Cool and thank you.

That subject is turning into a flame war.
My rig has been running full bore for months. No problems with my 1080FTW. Discover order the pads anyway. My backplate has hit close to 60 degrees though.

I've already reserved my kits and am waiting. I also made sure to talk about it on our ModZoo hangout this week. Definitely something that people need to be aware of.
 
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You are combining 2 separate issues:
1) Temperatures on the PCB because of a "torture test" using stress tests not recommended by nVidia on the Pascal GPU. EVGA also states their testing method and again states that the temperatures are with in tolerable limits of said hardware. EVGA is addressing those who are concerned with the temperatures by providing thermal pads to help dissipate the heat more evenly. (It's all in the 10xx forum section you'll have to dig for it) 
 
2) VRM's giving up the ghost/ sparking/ letting the smoke out (what ever you want to say) Again EVGA posted a statement saying that some VRMs were not to spec (4% affected) and failing, they even identified the maker of said VRMs in a post (again, I am not going to dig it up in the 10xx forum section) EVGA has also stated (in a post in that section) that they have corrected this issue.
 
These 2 issues have been intertwined in almost every thread in the 10xx forum section.
That's all I have to say on the issue, take it for what it's worth.
 
 

Not to extend this, but are the FTW Hybrids effected?  Based on what I've read no, but want to make sure.