
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
The Education Bureau of a district wants to organize a friendly football match among schools in its jurisdiction. The format of the competition is a single round-robin, meaning that each pair of schools will play one match. They plan to arrange $28$ matches. How many schools should be invited to participate in the competition?

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
user