Middle- earth is a fictional land inhabited by hobbits, elves, dwarves and men. The hobbits and elves are peaceful creatures that prefer slow, silent lives and appreciate nature and art. The dwarves and the men engage in physical games. The game is as follows. A tournament is one where out of the two teams that play a match, the one that loses get eliminated. The matches are played in different rounds, where in every round; half of the teams get eliminated from the tournament. If there are 8 rounds played in knock out tournament, how many matches were played?

• A. 257
• B. 256
• C. 72
• D. 255