8. (3 points) Four volleyball teams are participating in a round-robin tournament, where each team plays against every other team exactly once. If the score of a match is 3:0 or 3:1, the winning team gets 3 points, and the losing team gets 0 points; if the score is 3:2, the winning team gets 2 points, and the losing team gets 1 point. The final scores of the teams are four consecutive natural numbers. What is the score of the first-place team? 

The result of the translation is as follows:

8. (3 points) Four volleyball teams are participating in a round-robin tournament, where each team plays against every other team exactly once. If the score of a match is 3:0 or 3:1, the winning team gets 3 points, and the losing team gets 0 points; if the score is 3:2, the winning team gets 2 points, and the losing team gets 1 point. The final scores of the teams are four consecutive natural numbers. What is the score of the first-place team?
【Analysis】According to the handshake problem, we know: in a round-robin tournament with four teams, there are a total of 6 matches. Regardless of the outcome of each match, the total score of each match is 3 points; thus, the total score is: $3 \times 6=18$ (points). Decomposing 18 points into the sum of 3 consecutive natural numbers can solve the problem.

【Solution】Solution: One match: $4 \times(4-1) \div 2=6$ (matches);
Total score: $6 \times 3=18$ (points)
$$
3+4+5+6=18 \text {, }
$$

So the highest score is 6 points.
Answer: The score of the first place is 6 points.
Therefore, the answer is: 6.