
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
Two high school freshmen participated in a chess tournament for the second-year students. During the tournament, each pair of players competed in one game. The winner of each game received 1 point, the loser received 0 points, and if the game was a draw, each player received $1/2$ point. It is known that the two freshmen scored a total of 8 points together. Each second-year student scored the same amount of points and all scores were integers. How many second-year students participated in the tournament?

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