Ведущий игры открыл пакет вопросов.

Ведущий is commonly used as a noun meaning host, presenter, MC, quizmaster.

It looks like an adjective because historically it comes from the verb вести meaning to lead / conduct and has participle-like, adjective-like endings. In modern Russian, though, it very often functions as a regular noun.

So in this sentence, ведущий is not describing another noun. It is itself the person: the host.

Because игры is in the genitive singular.

Russian often uses the genitive case where English uses of. So:

• игра = game
• игры = of the game

That means:

• ведущий игры = the host of the game

This is a very common pattern in Russian:
noun + genitive noun = noun of noun

Because открыл is the perfective past form, and it presents the action as completed.

Here the idea is that the host opened the packet — a single finished action.

Compare:

• открыл = opened, completed
• открывал = was opening / used to open / opened repeatedly, focusing more on process or repeated action

In a simple event-by-event narration, открыл is the natural choice.

The form открыл tells us several things at once:

• it is past tense
• it is masculine singular
• it matches a masculine singular subject, here ведущий

Compare:

• он открыл = he opened
• она открыла = she opened
• они открыли = they opened

So the sentence specifically refers to a male host. If the host were female, it would be:

• Ведущая игры открыла пакет вопросов.

Because after a noun like пакет meaning packet, package, bundle, set, Russian usually puts the next noun in the genitive.

So:

• пакет = packet / package
• вопросы = questions
• вопросов = of questions

That gives:

• пакет вопросов = a packet of questions or a set of questions

This is another very common Russian pattern:

• чашка чая = a cup of tea
• бутылка воды = a bottle of water
• пакет вопросов = a packet of questions

Because the basic noun is вопрос meaning question, and after пакет Russian uses the genitive plural to mean a packet of questions.

So the forms are:

• вопрос = one question
• вопросы = questions
• вопросов = of questions

This is not because of a preposition. It is simply the case required by the construction with пакет.

In this sentence:

• Ведущий игры is the subject
• пакет вопросов is the direct object

The main clues are:

1. Ведущий is in the nominative case, which is the usual subject case.
2. Открыл agrees with a masculine singular subject.
3. The word order is the normal Russian order here: subject + verb + object.

One small complication: пакет is an inanimate masculine noun, and in the singular its accusative form looks the same as its nominative form. So пакет does not visibly change here. Learners often notice that.

Even so, the sentence structure and the other case forms make the meaning clear.

Russian has no articles, so there is no separate word for a or the.

Whether you translate it as a host or the host, a packet or the packet, depends on context.

So this sentence could be understood in English as something like:

• The host of the game opened the packet of questions
• or, in a different context, A host of a game opened a packet of questions

Usually the surrounding context tells you which one sounds natural.

Yes. Russian word order is more flexible than English because case endings do a lot of the work.

The sentence as given:

• Ведущий игры открыл пакет вопросов.

is a neutral, straightforward order.

But Russian could rearrange it for emphasis, for example:

• Пакет вопросов открыл ведущий игры.

That still means roughly the same thing, but the emphasis changes. It might sound more like It was the packet of questions that the host opened or put extra focus on who did it.

So word order in Russian is not random, but it is more flexible than in English.

Not necessarily.

Literally, пакет can mean a physical packet, package, envelope, bag, and so on. But in game, quiz, or competition contexts, пакет вопросов often means a set or bundle of questions prepared for a round.

So depending on context, it may be:

• a literal packet containing questions
• a prepared question set for a game or quiz

Russian often uses пакет this way in organized game contexts.