
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
199 people signed up to participate in a tennis tournament. In the first round, pairs of opponents are selected by drawing lots. The same method is used to pair opponents in the second, third, and all subsequent rounds. After each match, one of the two opponents is eliminated, and whenever the number of participants in the tournament is odd, one of them skips the next round.

Assuming that a new box of balls is used for each match between two tennis players, how many boxes of balls will be needed for the entire tournament?

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