Power Up — Sam Nisson

This inventive graphic novel that unfolds online and IRL takes readers from the halls of middle school, to epic robot video game battles, and back again.

Miles and Rhys know each other only as Gryphon and Backslash, and in the video game Mecha Melee they're an unstoppable team. They're the best friends they've got, online or in the real world, and they don't even realize they go to the same middle school.
 
But real-life wrongdoing blasts their duo into a crater the size of Arcticon. With life online and off a complete mess and BattleCon -- and the Every Game Ever tournament -- just weeks away, can the boys play their way back to each other?