I see the type column in the schema, but does the column 'type' really exists in the table 'matchup_relations' ?

Since that is what it is complaining about, "Unknown column 'matchup_relations.type'"

Yep, that column definitely exists in the schema. If I change the query to this and run it via the CLI it runs as expected:

select count(*) from `matchup_relations` as `self_c0eb92e036f396b2ea0271d86e92ca90` where `self_c0eb92e036f396b2ea0271d86e92ca90`.`matchup_id` = `self_c0eb92e036f396b2ea0271d86e92ca90`.`id` and `matchups`.`deleted_at` is null and `self_c0eb92e036f396b2ea0271d86e92ca90`.`type` = 0) < 1

It appears Laravel has some issues with self referencing relationships in general. I tried simplifying it so I wouldn't need the relations table but that had its own slew of problems. Most the stuff works as I need with the MatchupRelations table, so I'll probably stick with this route and just avoid using has()

Eloquent is buggy when it comes to self-referencing belongsToMany. I'm going to fix that, but have no time right now.