Gary
Can be abrasive at times (no joke)
On the subject of Infernape being bad - yes, I mostly agree. However, I personally used Infernape for a while as a check to Genesect. Volcarona just simply doesn't cut it for repeated switches into Genesect, as a Rapid Spinner is hard pressed to do anyhing against Genesect or spin, since Genesect OHKOs all the spinners in OU other than Tentacruel, so Volcarona can't really check it efficiently when it loses 50% of its health on the switch. However, Infernape is different. It can easily OHKO with Fire Blast, but unlike Heatran it isn't slower than Genesect and unlike Volcarona it doesn't have to rely on a spinner since it only takes normal damage from Stealth Rock rather than way too much damage. In a realistic sense it is also better than Ninetales at it, becaue who uses Ninetales outside of a Sun Team? Scarf Infernape packs enough power I would think to get past it, and MixApe can just hit the Rock Polish variants hard enough and usually survive a hit (other than a +1 Life Orb Thunderbolt, most likely). I know a few other people decided to do this too.
So now what that Genesect is banned? Simply put, I'm pretty sure that we will not be seeing as many Infernapes, and it will probably begin dropping in usage like it should have started doing long ago. Rain was always dominant and Infernape sucked against it, but that will probably change once again. As a side note, however, Infernape does suprisingly OK against Sandstorm teams (HP Ice can actually do some decent damage to Lando and Garchomp, Hippowdon hates taking a Grass Knot, Scizor and the occasional Celebi gets wrecked by a Fire Blast, Terrakion and Tyranitar dislike Close, Combats, and those things and Stoutland don't enjoy Mach Punches), but since Sand started falling around when Genesect appeared in the metagame, the effect on its usage couldn't be seen.
I'm pretty sure someone has posted this already, but regardless...
Yeah, Rain is really bringing the Fire Ape down. Although I wasn't TOO much of a fan of Infernape before BW, the fact that he could run a pretty successful mixed set came in a lot of handy at times, and still does as long as Rain is out of the picture. I find it almost impossible to use him on a non weather team, because you absolutely HAVE to have Sand, Hail, or Sun in order to keep Rain from completely nerfing Infernape's Fire attacks. Sun teams are obviously the best way to use him, however Infernape can play a lot of nice roles on balanced teams as well, but without a way to keep Rain from pouring down the entire battle, he pretty much becomes only useful for his Fighting attacks, which are greatly out classed by Terrakion anyway.