
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
In a single-elimination tournament, where each game is between two players and only the winner advances to the next round, there are 300 players initially registered. If the tournament structure requires that the number of players in each subsequent round be a power of 2, how many players must receive a bye in the first round, and how many total games must be played to determine the champion?

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