Подсказка зала помогла команде знатоков.

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

Here the subject is подсказка (hint), which is feminine singular, so the verb is помогла.

Compare:

• он помог = he helped
• она помогла = she helped
• оно помогло = it helped
• они помогли = they helped

So Подсказка ... помогла literally follows the pattern The hint helped.

Because the verb помочь / помогать usually takes the person or thing being helped in the dative.

So:

• помочь кому? = to help whom?
• команде = to the team

That is why Russian says:

• помочь команде not
• помочь команду

This is a very common pattern to remember:

• Я помог другу. = I helped my friend.
• Она помогла сестре. = She helped her sister.

Because команда знатоков means a team of experts / the team of experts, and Russian often uses the genitive after another noun to express of.

So:

• команда = team
• знатоки = experts, connoisseurs
• знатоков = of experts (genitive plural)

This is the same kind of structure as:

• стакан воды = a glass of water
• группа студентов = a group of students
• команда знатоков = a team of experts

For the same basic reason: подсказка зала means something like the audience’s hint or a hint from the hall/audience.

The base noun is:

• зал = hall

Its genitive singular is:

• зала = of the hall

In this kind of context, especially in a game-show setting, зал often refers not just to the physical hall, but to the audience in the hall.

So подсказка зала is a natural Russian way to say:

• the audience’s hint
• a hint from the audience

Russian can express this idea in more than one way.

• подсказка зала = the audience’s hint / hint from the audience
• подсказка от зала = a hint from the audience

The version with the genitive, подсказка зала, is compact and very natural. It sounds like a fixed phrase, especially in quiz or TV-show language.

So both are understandable, but подсказка зала is the more idiomatic phrasing here.

Because this sentence describes a completed event with a result.

• помогла = helped, succeeded in helping
• помогала = was helping / used to help / helped repeatedly

Here the idea is that one specific hint had an effect and helped the team, so помогла is the natural choice.

Compare:

• Подсказка зала помогла команде. = The audience’s hint helped the team.
• Подсказка зала помогала команде весь раунд. = The audience’s hint was helping the team throughout the whole round.
  (This second one sounds much less natural in this context.)

Yes. Russian word order is relatively flexible because the case endings show the grammatical roles.

This sentence could also be rearranged, for example:

• Команде знатоков помогла подсказка зала.
• Подсказка зала команде знатоков помогла.

The basic meaning stays the same because:

• подсказка is still the subject
• команде is still dative
• знатоков and зала are still genitives

Changing the order mainly changes emphasis or style, not the core meaning.

The cases tell you.

• подсказка is in the nominative, so it is the subject
• команде is in the dative, so it is the receiver of the help

So the sentence means:

• The hint helped the team not
• The team helped the hint

This is one of the big advantages of Russian case endings: even if the word order changes, the endings still show the roles.

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

In some contexts, especially cultural ones, знатоки can refer to a specific team of experts in a quiz/game-show setting. So команда знатоков can sound a bit more specific than just a smart team. It suggests people known for knowledge or expertise.

Because Russian has no articles.

So a noun like подсказка can mean:

• a hint
• the hint

And команде знатоков can mean:

• to a team of experts
• to the team of experts

Context tells you which English article makes sense. That is why the Russian sentence can be translated in slightly different ways depending on the situation.