Can casual teams work in this game?

I’ve always wanted to play VGC with a bunch of pokemon I like, but everytime I’ve watched VGC most people just run the same boring picks because it’s meta.

I said this to my friends, and they said that it’s possible; but what is the general opinion?

Keep in mind, I only want to play casually; but I also don’t want my team to be steamrolled every time just because it isn’t meta.