Effective points come into play if there is a forfeit. This removes the incentive to forfeit a game in order to move down into a group of weaker players. Effective points are only used to calculate group movement (up, down, or stay) and do not get added to actual cumulative points.

So if player 2 forfeits 2 games in a match of 4 games their effective points for group movement calculation is total match points plus 4 effective points. See below:

Actual Match total:
Player 1 - 17
Player 2 - 6
Player 3 - 7

Effective points for group movement:
Player 1 - 17 moves up
Player 2 - 6 + 4 = 10 stays in same group
Player 3 - 7 moves down

No. It means that if there are no forfeits the actual score and effective score are the same.

Effective Score - "any player who forfeits games of a match will receive two (2) effective points for each game forfeited. Players with valid scores for a game will receive effective points >equal to their actual league point count< for that game."

With 9 players in 3 groups it looks like this:

Group 1 Actual Match total (no forfeits):
Player 1 - 12 stay
Player 2 - 8 down
Player 3 - 10 stay

Group 2 Actual Match total (no forfeits):
Player 1 - 17 up
Player 2 - 6 down
Player 3 - 7 stay

Group 3 Actual Match total (no forfeits):
Player 1 - 13 up
Player 2 - 8 stay
Player 3 - 9 stay

Laddering comes into play when there is enough players to have more than one division. Here is the playoff chart based on the number of player for a season:

fspa_(resized).PNG

For 9-14 players there is an A and B division. So with 10 players, latter positions 1-5 are A division and 6-10 are B division. In week 8 of a 10 week season, players get locked into the division their latter ranking is assigned to.

Correct. That bubbles players together with similar skills over the season.

This should help:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fspa-league-manager