You can create a block without an if statement.
For example, these are equivalent:
{
// some code
}
if (true) {
// some code
}
But it's not a good practice to create blocks like this.
It's a code smell,
suggesting to wrap // some code in a dedicated function instead.
Anytime you think some neat trick is "unconventional", it's most probably a bad practice. Don't do it, fix it.