What does “es läuft rund” mean in German?

To let a finalist down gently, the baking-show judges say the first challenge nicht ganz so rund lief for her — it “didn’t run quite so round.” Rund laufen comes from machines: a wheel or engine that runs perfectly round runs smoothly. So es läuft rund means things are going well, and nicht ganz so rund is German’s polite way of saying they weren’t.

You’ll hear it about workdays, relationships, and football seasons: Bei mir läuft’s gerade nicht so rund. The understatement in the clip is textbook German bad-news cushioning — a Punkterückstand (points gap) that was no longer einzuholen (impossible to catch up) becomes simply “not quite so round,” right before the goodbye.