Музыкальный раунд понравился команде знатоков.

Because Russian uses понравиться differently from English to like.

The structure is basically:

• X понравился Y = X pleased Y / Y liked X

So in this sentence:

• Музыкальный раунд = the thing that caused the reaction, so it is the grammatical subject and stays in the nominative
• команде знатоков = the experiencer, the one to whom it was pleasing, so it goes in the dative

That is why Russian says something closer to:

• The music round was pleasing to the team of experts

rather than:

• The team liked the music round

Because понравиться normally takes the person who likes something in the dative.

Compare:

• Мне понравился фильм. = I liked the film.
• Ей понравилась песня. = She liked the song.
• Нам понравилось шоу. = We liked the show.

So here:

• команда → команде in the dative singular

The dative here means something like to the team.

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the grammatical subject in gender and number.

Here the subject is:

• раунд — a masculine singular noun

So the verb must also be masculine singular:

• раунд понравился

Compare:

• Фильм понравился команде. — masculine singular
• Книга понравилась команде. — feminine singular
• Письмо понравилось команде. — neuter singular
• Песни понравились команде. — plural

So понравился is masculine because раунд is masculine.

These are related verbs, but they differ in aspect:

• нравиться = imperfective
• понравиться = perfective

Very roughly:

• нравиться = to be pleasing / to be liked in general, habitually, or over time
• понравиться = to come across as pleasing, to like something as a completed reaction

Examples:

• Мне нравится эта музыка. = I like this music.
  (general opinion)
• Мне понравился концерт. = I liked the concert.
  (reaction to a specific event)

In your sentence, понравился is used because it refers to a completed reaction to a specific round.

The -ся ending is a common Russian verb ending, historically related to reflexive meaning, but in many verbs it is just part of the verb and should be learned as such.

So it is best to learn:

• нравиться / понравиться as complete dictionary forms

You should not try to interpret понравиться as a simple combination of понравить + ся in a way that directly matches English. For learners, the most useful thing is to remember the whole pattern:

• Мне понравился фильм
• Ей понравилась книга
• Им понравилось выступление

Because it depends on команда in the phrase:

• команда знатоков = a team of experts / connoisseurs

This is a very common Russian pattern:

• группа студентов = a group of students
• команда игроков = a team of players
• семья врачей = a family of doctors

After a noun like команда, the second noun often appears in the genitive, expressing of whom / of what.

So:

• команда = team
• знатоков = of experts

And because команде is dative in the sentence, only команда changes form. The dependent noun stays genitive:

• команда знатоков
• команде знатоков

Знаток means someone who knows a subject very well: an expert, connoisseur, or knowledgeable person.

So:

• команда знатоков = a team of experts / connoisseurs

In some contexts, especially in Russian culture, знатоки may also remind people of the famous TV quiz show Что? Где? Когда?, where the players are called знатоки. But grammatically, here it simply means experts or knowledgeable people.

Yes. Russian word order is more flexible than English because case endings show grammatical roles.

This sentence could also appear as:

• Команде знатоков понравился музыкальный раунд.

This is often the more neutral order in everyday speech: to whom + what happened.

Your original sentence:

• Музыкальный раунд понравился команде знатоков.

puts more focus on музыкальный раунд.

Both are correct. The difference is mainly about emphasis and information flow, not basic meaning.

Because любить usually means to love or to like in a general, lasting sense, not a one-time reaction to an event.

Compare:

• Я люблю джаз. = I love / like jazz.
• Мне понравился джазовый концерт. = I liked the jazz concert.

For a specific experience such as a round in a game, show, or quiz, Russian much more naturally uses понравиться.

So in this sentence, понравился is the natural choice because it describes the team’s reaction to a particular round.

The dictionary form is:

• понравиться

To get there from понравился:

1. recognize it is past tense
2. remove the masculine past ending -л
3. restore the infinitive ending -ться

So:

• понравился → понравиться

This is a very useful skill in Russian, because many verbs appear in changed forms in real sentences.

Yes, that is a very good literal way to understand it.

A close literal breakdown is:

• Музыкальный раунд = the musical/music round
• понравился = pleased / turned out pleasing
• команде знатоков = to the team of experts

So the Russian grammar is much closer to:

• The music round pleased the team of experts

That literal interpretation helps explain both:

• why раунд is nominative
• why команде is dative

Even though the most natural English translation is still:

• The team of experts liked the music round.